Monday Brief: Auditor General Goes Silent While Billions Vanish, 77 Cubans Screened for Trafficking, and Hetmyer Breaks a World Cup Record

☀️ Good Morning, Guyana! It’s Monday, February 9, 2026. The T20 World Cup is in full swing, the Budget debate just wrapped with more fireworks than Diwali, and Christopher Ram is asking questions that nobody in government wants to answer. Grab your coffee. This one’s spicy.

1. 🔍 Auditor General Goes Blank While Spending Explodes

Christopher Ram — chartered accountant, attorney, and the man the government wishes would take up gardening — published a devastating column this weekend. His target? Auditor General Deodat Sharma, who has reportedly applied for a two-year extension of his tenure.

Ram’s summary of the situation is brutal: the AG’s original appointment was “accidental” (an AFC member was absent from the Public Accounts Committee the day of confirmation), public spending has exploded into the trillions, and yet the audit reports are… nowhere.

“The framework is structurally incapable of producing independence,” Ram wrote.

Translation: the person who’s supposed to check the government’s receipts is asking the government for a contract extension. Nothing to see here, folks.

Scorecard: 🔴 Opposition will weaponize this. 🟢 Government will say Ram is biased. 🤷 The money remains unaccounted for regardless.

2. 🚢 77 Cubans Screened for Suspected Human Trafficking

In news that sounds like it belongs in a Netflix documentary, 77 Cuban nationals have been screened in connection with suspected human trafficking operations. Details are still emerging, but the sheer number is alarming.

Cuba is in the middle of a humanitarian crisis — the US has branded the island an “extraordinary threat,” Venezuelan oil shipments have stopped since the Maduro removal, and Cubans are desperate enough to take increasingly dangerous routes out.

This story has layers: immigration enforcement, regional migration pressure, and the question of whether Guyana is becoming a transit point. We’ll be watching.

3. 🏠 More Than 20 Homes Bulldozed in Circuitville

If you lived in Circuitville and went to work this morning with a house, congratulations — you’re one of the lucky ones. More than 20 homes were bulldozed in what appears to be a government land reclamation exercise.

The details are thin, the emotions are high, and the affected families are asking the question everyone asks: “Where do we go now?”

Housing Minister Croal has been busy lately warning about “hasty resales” of government-allocated houses. Whether this is connected remains unclear, but the optics of bulldozing people’s homes while championing a $1.588 trillion “people first” budget are… challenging.

4. 📖 The Great Reading Debate: Should MPs Be Allowed to Read Speeches?

Here’s a controversy that only Parliament could produce. During his maiden Budget speech, Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed was repeatedly interrupted by PPP/C MPs who accused him of — brace yourselves — reading his speech.

Yes. The governing party’s main objection to the Opposition Leader’s first-ever Budget address was that he was using a written text. Standing Orders technically prohibit reading speeches verbatim but allow “notes and quotations.”

Kaieteur’s editorial called it an “archaic rule” that “belongs to another era.” The Chronicle’s columnist called Mohamed a “slave to his carefully written and vetted script” and suggested his sister wrote it.

The real question nobody’s asking: If the minister who recited a teacher’s punctuality record had THAT memorized… what else do they have memorized?

5. 🏟️ Bayroc Stadium Opens in Linden — Ali Takes Centre Stage

President Ali showed up in Linden on Saturday evening for the grand opening of the Bayroc National Stadium, Linden’s first-ever national-standard sporting facility. The President reportedly “took centre stage” — a phrase that does a lot of heavy lifting.

This is objectively good news for Linden, a community that has long felt neglected by the PPP/C government. A proper stadium means hosting national events, economic activity, and proof that budget allocations sometimes turn into actual buildings.

Coming alongside the Palmyra International Stadium and McKenzie multipurpose facility, the government’s sports infrastructure push is real. Whether the maintenance budgets will match the construction budgets is the question for 2027.

6. ⚡ $10.7 Billion for Gas-to-Energy — The Project That Won’t Die

The 2026 Budget includes $10.7 billion for the Gas-to-Energy project at Wales. That’s $8.1 billion from US EXIM Bank loans and $2.6 billion from the national treasury.

Running total so far: $258 billion spent. Original promise: electricity costs cut by 50%. Original deadline: long passed. Current deadline: “end of 2026.”

Prime Minister Phillips told Parliament the project has “moved decisively into large-scale execution” and “remains on track.” Kaieteur noted that the project has missed “several deadlines.”

Both statements can be true. That’s what makes this story so perfectly Guyanese.

7. 🎓 Law School Construction Starts This Year

Attorney General Nandlall announced that construction of the fourth Council of Legal Education law school will begin in 2026, right on the UG campus. Eight acres of land have been cleared.

“During the year 2026 we will begin the construction of a law school in Guyana,” Nandlall said, which is the kind of sentence that means either “groundbreaking in March” or “we’ll throw some cement at it in December.”

The school is supposed to attract students from across the Caribbean and provide affordable legal education. Given that Guyana currently produces lawyers at approximately the same rate it produces astronauts, this is welcome.

8. 🚁 Drone Operators Warned: Comply or Face the Law

The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority issued a stern warning to drone operators after Minister of Amerindian Affairs Sarah Browne complained about a drone flying over her home.

Let me repeat that. A government minister had to ask for security because someone was flying a drone over her house. The GCAA reminded everyone that drone regulations are “not optional but mandatory.”

Somewhere in Georgetown, a 16-year-old with a DJI Mini is sweating.

9. 🏫 World Bank Funding Dropout Prevention

The Education Ministry is using World Bank financing to develop a National Standard Operating Procedure for secondary school dropout prevention, including an Early Warning System and a Reintegration Framework.

This is boring-sounding but genuinely important. Guyana has a dropout problem. An early warning system that flags at-risk students before they disappear from the system could save thousands of futures.

The fact that it’s World Bank-funded means external oversight, measurable targets, and the kind of accountability that the Auditor General apparently can’t provide locally. (Sorry. Too soon?)

10. 🏏 CRICKET! Hetmyer Smashes Fastest WI T20 World Cup Fifty

The T20 World Cup kicked off and Guyana’s own Shimron Hetmyer immediately made headlines, smashing the fastest fifty by a West Indian in T20 World Cup history — off just 22 balls — breaking Chris Gayle’s record from 2009.

Hetmyer’s 64 off 36 balls (6 sixes, 2 fours) rescued the Windies from a sluggish start against Scotland at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Then Romario Shepherd — also Guyanese — took 5 wickets for 20 runs, including a hat-trick and four wickets in five balls.

West Indies won by 35 runs. Two Guyanese stars. One unforgettable night.

Next up: West Indies vs England, February 11. Set your alarms.

⚡ Quick Hits

• Global food prices fell for the fifth straight month — good news for your grocery bill, eventually
• Iran says missiles are “off the table” in nuclear talks with the US — reject military build-up
• Miner chopped to death at Issano — police investigating
• Mechanic shot at in D’Urban Street robbery attempt — friend intervened with a knife, suspect fled injured
• Anna Catherina care centre now officially open for day/night childcare
• $298M primary school coming for St. Cuthbert’s Mission
• 19 contractors bid for Heroes Highway asphaltic overlay works
• Guyana attending Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting in Fiji this week

📋 Monday Scorecard

The Monday Brief is satirical commentary on real Guyanese news stories. We read all four newspapers so you don’t have to.

For the pro-government perspective, see today’s Uncle Ramesh.

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