Georgetown: The Bank of Guyana, as part of its statutory requirements, published in the Official Gazette, a Statement of Assets and Liabilities for Guyana which indicates bankruptcy compared to 2015 to present.
This is in addition to an alarmingly depleted gold reserve.
The state of play, as illustrated in the May 23 publication of the Official Gazette reveals that the General Reserve is -$290,667,332.
Additionally, Public Deposits have also depleted to below $0, also recording a negative balance of -$88,629,401,855.
Guyana’s Contingency Reserve account also reflects an alarmingly low among of $2.3 billion.
When APNU/AFC took office in May 2015, the Bank of Guyana’s Statement of Assets and Liabilities reflected a completely different situation.
According to the records, when the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change took Office in 2015, Guyana’s gold reserves were stocked at $15 billion.
The latest figures show that the gold reserves have been depleted by the APNU/AFC administration to less $1 billion—now standing at $715 million.
This reflects a difference of $14.3 billion spent by the sitting Administration during its time in office, not accounting the additional sales for gold that would have cycled through the financial system over the course of the five years in office.
In 2015, Guyana’s General Reserve had in its coffers just about $6 billion while the Contingency reserve held $4 billion.
Today, those savings have been eroded to below zero dollars, to now reflect considerable overdrafts.
According to the May 2020 figures, the General Reserves now stand at minus $291 million while the Public Deposits now account for an $89 billion red mark or overdraft against the country.
While the contingency reserve stood at $4.8 billion when the APNU/AFC coalition took office, the current accounts reflect a balance of just about 2.3 billion.
Further, the Ministry of Finance Wednesday night said Guyana’s Treasury does not have any cash to bail out the financially saddled state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO).
The Finance Ministry, in a carefully worded statement, suggested that monies would be facilitated from another source.
The Ministry of Finance notes Guysuco’s request to the Government for a bailout, and wishes to assure that it is actively seeking to assist Guysuco to access funds that are available to it, to mitigate its present challenges.
In this regard, we wish to remind that a $30 Billion bond backed by NICIL’s assets and guaranteed by the Government of Guyana was secured through NICIL to retrofit and revitalise the 3 remaining sugar estates. During the period July 2018 to February 2020, $9,720,759,568 was disbursed to Guysuco to fund its Capital and Operational Expenditure – much of which was outside the terms of the bond.
Additionally, NICIL through the SPU, sold lands that were vested to it, and garnered deposits of $2.1 billion. The full sum was used to offset bond payments that became due in May, 2020. The balance of $1.5 billion for the lands will be paid over to NICIL when the vesting orders are signed and gazetted. It is expected that part of this sum will go towards a bond repayment which is due on July 4th, 2020, and the remainder to Guysuco. Guysuco also generates its own income.
Another disbursement is expected in the coming days; so we urge that NICIL, Guysuco and the syndicated lenders work assiduously to resolve any bottlenecks.
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