Rambharat: Man, God watch religious grants

Clarence Rambharat -
Clarence Rambharat -

THE eyes of man and God will be on the Government’s grants to religious groups for helping the needy as covid19 restrictions continue, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat told the Senate on Tuesday.

He was replying to a motion on the adjournment by Wade Mark. The Opposition Senator had asked why individuals were subject to jail for any fraud in accessing personal aid, while religious groups only faced God’s admonition according to Social Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis the day before. Mark had urged transparency, accountability, fairness and equity in the grants, while hoping the Government was not “using” taxpayers' money during the lockdown.

Rambharat said the grants had been announced in Parliament and were not surreptitious. He explained Robins-Regis’ remarks about trusting religious groups to do right by saying it is not physically possible for the Government to go into every community to measure every morsel of food distributed by religious groups.

Rambharat then added, “This is not an agreement between the minister and God. This is an agreement between the Government and the bodies.

“Like all agreements for the disbursement of public funds it is governed by the Audit and Exchequer act. These are things that fall under the purview of the Auditor General (and) auditors in individual ministries. They fall under the purview of the committees of Parliament. They are susceptible to Freedom of Information requests. Any Member of any House can ask a question. So there’s nothing short on transparency here.”

He gave details not seen on a list of recipients given to reporters at the grant launch on Monday.

These were : Jamaat Al Muslimeen ($100,000); Open Bible Churches ($200,000); Council of Evangelical Churches ($400,000); PAWI ($200,000); Bahai ($40,000); Moravian ($49,000); Orisha Elders ($99,000) and Presbyterian Church ($297,000.)

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