“Loans Fall Dramatically Short”: AFC Renews Demand for Independent Forensic Audit Into President Ali’s Mega Farm
By Travis Chase | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — The Alliance For Change (AFC) has launched a biting counter-offensive in the ongoing political firestorm surrounding President Irfaan Ali’s private agricultural holdings, declaring that recent attempts by prominent columnist and talk-show host Freddie Kissoon to defend the project’s financing have completely backfired.
The opposition party contends that Kissoon’s public intervention, intended to bring clarity to the situation, has instead exposed massive financial discrepancies and raised far more troubling questions than answers. The AFC has renewed its formal demand for a comprehensive, independent forensic investigation into the true source and scale of the funding behind the President’s controversial multi-billion-dollar enterprise.
The controversy centers on a state-of-the-art mega farm and agro-industrial ranch stretching across 150 acres along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. Critics have repeatedly argued that the vast, highly capitalized estate cannot be mathematically reconciled with a public servant’s standard statutory income.
In his public defense of the Head of State, Kissoon pointed to a historical paper trail involving two local commercial bank loans totaling $48 million. According to Kissoon, these lines of credit were approved in 2012 and 2015 to establish and subsequently expand a standard poultry operation on 25 acres of leased land.
The Presidential Farm Financing Discrepancy
The AFC’s technical team issued a breakdown demonstrating that the historical credit lines cited by government defenders fail to account for the modern estate’s true valuation:
| Financing Element / Claim | Cited Historical Loans (Kissoon) | Actual Estimated Capitalization (AFC) |
| Land Footprint Size | 25 Acres (Leased poultry baseline) | 150 Acres (Expanded agro-industrial ranch) |
| Verified Funding Capital | $48 Million (Combined 2012 & 2015 approvals) | Upwards of $1.5 Billion to $5 Billion |
| Operational Scope | Localized poultry sheds | Mega-scale infrastructure, automated processing, and advanced utility grids. |
| The Financial Gap | Deficit exceeds 95% of the asset’s current valuation. | Unexplained luxury capitalization and rapid private development. |
[ PRIVATE ESTATE CAPITALIZATION AUDIT ]
│
┌──────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┐
▼ ▼
[ The Historical Defense ] [ The Reality Gap ]
- 2012 Poultry Loan: $24M - 150-acre highway acquisition
- 2015 Expansion Loan: $24M - Industrial utility layout
- Total accounted: $48M - Estimated value: G$5 Billion
│ │
└──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
▼
[ UNEXPLAINED FINANCING IMPASSE ]
- Requires an unrevealed 2023 mega-loan exceeding $1.5B
- Triggering formal AFC demand for a multi-agency forensic audit
“Referencing a modest $48 million poultry loan from over a decade ago falls dramatically, laughably short of explaining a multi-billion-dollar modern agricultural empire,” the AFC stated in a heavily critical press brief. “This line of defense is a deliberate attempt to distract from the real issue. Unless a separate, unrevealed loan reportedly obtained by the President in 2023 exceeded $1.5 billion, the explanations provided by the executive and his media surrogates simply do not add up. Transparency and democratic accountability require a credible, court-admissible explanation.”
Demand for Multi-Agency Submissions
The AFC emphasized that public trust cannot be restored through opinion columns or social media broadcasts. The party is calling for a formal multi-agency investigation led by independent, non-aligned forensic auditors. The proposed probe would legally mandate the submission of records from several state and private entities:
- GL&SC Land Audit: The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission would be required to publish the original application files, lease approvals, and precise spatial boundary logs for the 150-acre Long Creek property.
- Utility Infrastructure Disclosure: State-owned entities, including Guyana Power and Light (GPL), must provide records clarifying who funded the high-capital cost installation of dedicated localized grids serving the private estate.
- Commercial Bank Subpoenas: Formal verification of any 2023 loan agreements to determine if proper collateral thresholds were met without utilizing executive influence.
The Alliance For Change concluded by reminding the public that Guyana must break its historic cycle of shielding high-ranking political figures from financial scrutiny. Asserting that public servants are legally bound to absolute transparency under the Integrity Commission Act, the opposition maintains that only an unredacted, independent investigation can clear the air or hold power accountable.
