RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

UNC al­der­man Vic­tor Roberts is de­mand­ing a full au­dit of the par­ty’s fi­nances over the past decade and has giv­en the UNC un­til April 30 to dis­close the de­tails.

In a let­ter dat­ed March 6 and ad­dressed to UNC chair­man Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo, gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pe­ter Kan­hai, po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, and trea­sur­er Vil­liana Ra­moutars­ingh, Roberts raised con­cerns about fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy with­in the par­ty.

“I write to for­mal­ly call for a com­pre­hen­sive au­dit of the fi­nan­cial af­fairs of the UNC over the past decade,” Roberts said. “As a par­ty that up­holds de­mo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues of trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty, it is both alarm­ing and un­ac­cept­able that no fi­nan­cial state­ments have been pro­vid­ed to mem­bers, donors, and stake­hold­ers,” he added.

Roberts ques­tioned the man­age­ment of funds col­lect­ed through var­i­ous means.

“De­spite nu­mer­ous fundrais­ers, fetes, vol­un­tary con­tri­bu­tions, and man­dat­ed salary de­duc­tions from coun­cil­lors and MPs, there has been no trans­paren­cy what­so­ev­er re­gard­ing the par­ty’s fi­nan­cial af­fairs,” he said.

He not­ed that par­ty mem­bers re­main in the dark.

“To date, no an­nu­al fi­nan­cial state­ments have been pro­vid­ed to par­ty mem­bers, leav­ing many in the dark about whether the par­ty’s fi­nances are in the red, black, or yel­low," he said.

Roberts called for an­swers on sev­er­al fi­nan­cial mat­ters.

“How much mon­ey has been raised an­nu­al­ly through fundrais­ers, donor con­tri­bu­tions, and mem­ber­ship fees? Are do­na­tions in­creas­ing or de­creas­ing, and can in­creas­es be linked to spe­cif­ic par­ty ac­tiv­i­ties or poli­cies?” he asked.

He al­so raised con­cerns about ex­pen­di­ture. “What is the month­ly rental cost of the cur­rent and past par­ty head­quar­ters? Have we con­duct­ed a lease, rental, or pur­chase analy­sis?”

Roberts al­so ques­tioned the num­ber of paid par­ty of­fi­cials and their salaries. “How many paid par­ty of­fi­cials ex­ist? What are their spe­cif­ic du­ties, and what are their salaries?” he asked.

He said the mem­ber­ship needs clar­i­ty on the head­quar­ters build­ing fund. “How much mon­ey cur­rent­ly ex­ists in the head­quar­ters build­ing fund, and what is the tar­get fig­ure?”

Roberts al­so asked whether the par­ty is op­er­at­ing in a sur­plus or deficit. “Is the par­ty op­er­at­ing an­nu­al­ly in a fi­nan­cial sur­plus or deficit?” he asked.

He called for de­tails on fu­ture plans. “What new rev­enue-gen­er­at­ing ac­tiv­i­ties are be­ing con­tem­plat­ed?”

Roberts ques­tioned the par­ty’s trans­porta­tion ex­pens­es. “What are the trans­porta­tion costs to shut­tle mem­ber­ship to cot­tage meet­ings?”

He said fi­nan­cial in­for­ma­tion should not be lim­it­ed to a se­lect few.

“At present, this crit­i­cal fi­nan­cial in­for­ma­tion ap­pears to be with­in the purview of on­ly a small, se­lect group with­in the par­ty, rais­ing se­ri­ous con­cerns about trans­paren­cy and gov­er­nance,” he said.

He called for pub­lic dis­clo­sure of fi­nan­cial de­tails. “In the in­ter­est of ac­count­abil­i­ty, I am call­ing on the par­ty’s trea­sur­er to dis­close the fi­nan­cial de­tails no lat­er than April 30,” Roberts said.

He said par­ty mem­bers and the pub­lic de­serve an­swers. “The mem­bers of the par­ty—and by ex­ten­sion, the peo­ple of T&T—de­serve full trans­paren­cy re­gard­ing how funds are col­lect­ed, man­aged, and spent by one of the coun­try’s two main de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions.”

Roberts said the par­ty must lead by ex­am­ple. “If we as­pire to lead a na­tion and gov­ern its fi­nances, we must, at the very least, set the high­est stan­dards for our in­ter­nal af­fairs,” he said.

He urged the par­ty to take his con­cerns se­ri­ous­ly. “I trust this mat­ter will be treat­ed with the se­ri­ous­ness it de­serves,” he said.

Guardian Me­dia has reached out to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Tan­coo and Ra­moutars­ingh and we are await­ing a re­sponse.