The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has moved to stop its missions in North America from continuing to default on their financial obligations to their landlords, telephone companies and their local staff.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudy Insanally told Stabroek News that he had been assured that the remittances had been sent off to bring the missions' accounts current. He attributed the delay to some end-of-year snafu.
Stabroek News has learnt that the funds are to meet expenditure for offices and other accommodation, telephone bills and to pay for the missions' wage bill.
The releases are several months overdue and Stabroek News understands that, but for the mission heads using their own resources to meet some of the expenses, the missions could have been severely embarrassed. Stabroek News understands that because of the irregularity of the remittances many of the local staff are threatening to quit because they are finding it difficult to meet their financial obligations in a timely manner.
According to reports reaching the Stabroek News, the Consulate General in Toronto was behind in its rent for its offices and on the accommodation for the foreign service officers posted to the consulate as well as for wages of its local staff. The local staff, Stabroek News understands, has not been paid for several months.
From reports reaching this newspaper, the Consulate General in New York, which has recently moved offices, has also been cash-strapped as a result of the delayed remittances.
Stabroek News understands too that one consequence of the untimely provision of funds to the missions is that these offices are forced to use some of the revenue generated to meet their operating expenses. The Auditor General has commented unfavourably on this practice which breaches the financial regulations.
One of the constraints faced by the staff of the overseas missions is that their overseas allowances have not been increased for almost four years. The local staff claim to have gone for a similar period without any increase in pay. However, informed sources at the ministry say that the wages of the local staff were increased last year, but they were not in a position to indicate the order of the increases.
Another source of frustration for the missions is the unavailability of blank passports to meet the demand for new passports from Guyanese resident in their areas. Stabroek News understands that this not only denies Guyanese nationals the opportunity to travel but also denies the country revenue since the charge for a Guyana passport is US$50, which includes the administrative cost for processing the application. In Guyana, the fee for a new passport is $1,000.
The difficulties being faced by the missions as a result of tardy funding are not new and are not confined to the present administration. During the PNC administration some missions went without releases for several months and the high commissions and ambassadors were forced to use their own resources to tide the missions over between releases, which at times took more than three months to arrive and then were not the full amount expected.