The Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) owes $815.2M in dues to several agencies, Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill said in the National Assembly this morning during the consideration of the estimates of Budget 2020. The Minister said that this situation was “inherited” from the former Coalition administration.
“Let me tell you what we met when we got into office: the Transport and Harbours Department owed the Guyana Revenue Authority $469,980,000; it owed the National Insurance Scheme – for the workers – $331,285,000; it owed the Guyana Public Service Credit Union $2,343,000; [and] they owed the Amalgamated Transport and General Cooperative Credit Union $7,132,000…In total, the liabilities of Transport and Harbours Department, inherited by the PPP administration – when Irfaan Ali was sworn in as President on the August 2, 2020 – was $815,231,000,” Edghill told the House.
The Minister said that notwithstanding this, the government will do all it can to ensure that there is no recurrence.
“I can give the assurance that having to deal with the liabilities and the non-performance in the last five years in getting things along, we’ve already engaged the management of the Transport an Harbours Department, and they are looking at all possibilities of making this sector modern, cost-efficient and affordable. We don’t want to impose hardships on people for things that must be sustainable in the modern world,” Edghill said.
