Maicobie still to request audit - Minister Rodrigues

Maicobie still to request audit
- Minister Rodrigues
Kaieteur News, 27 October 2007
There has been no formal request by residents of Maicobie Village,
Region Eight, for an audit to be carried out, Minister of Amerindian
Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues said on Thursday.

However, the Minister said that once this is done her Ministry will
launch an investigation.

The Minister's comment came in response to an article published in
Wednesday's edition of the Kaieteur News.

In the article it was stated that some residents of Maicobie Village
are not pleased with the way the Council is handling the financial
affairs of the village.

As such, residents are calling for the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs
to conduct an audit.

Several villagers accused the village leaders of ‘doing their own
thing' with the village money.

“There are always reports like that. I think the good thing though is
that villagers are no longer silent when they perceive that something
is going wrong or when they know something is going wrong,” the
Amerindian Affairs Minister said.

She noted that her Ministry is training Toshaos to deal with matters of
that nature since there are inadequate resources to visit each area to
investigate such claims.

“But if there is indeed something happening at Maicobie then villagers
should make the report in writing and we would do some investigation,”
Minister Rodrigues said.

The Amerindian Act, she noted, states that an audit must be carried out
at least once in three years.

“If you wish to audit and you do not have the documents to audit, then
what are you auditing? That has been a major problem for us. So what we
normally do is apart from checking the documents, we would meet with
the community to hear what is happening.”

She said that some things do not ‘come out' in the audit so other
investigations are necessary. Meanwhile, at the National Toshaos
Conference on Thursday, the Amerindian leaders were busy drafting rules
to govern their communities.

Commenting on that say's sessions, the Amerindian Affairs Minister said
that the Toshaos have a long list of things that they can make rules
on.

“These things are listed in the Amerindian Act, they are working on the
rules now, so that we can have some generic rules but each community is
required to consult with every Toshao and the members. Two-thirds of
their general meeting must agree. So what we are trying to do is help
them in their rules formulation and when they go back they will consult
and decide which of the rules apply to them,” Minister Rodrigues said.

Under the theme ‘Building Capacity for Good Governance', the National
Toshaos Conference began on Monday.

Some 144 Toshaos and Senior Councillors from an estimated 100
Amerindian communities have been engaging in the discussion of issues
pertinent to the development of Amerindians at the meeting.

The conference ended yesterday.