Gov’t moving to court on OP budget cuts – Luncheon

The Guyana government on Wednesday announced that it will be moving to the courts to challenge the constitutionality of budget cuts for the Office of the President (OP), saying the reductions have hampered the effective functioning of President Donald Ramotar.

The revelation came from Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon at his weekly post-Cabinet news briefing at OP where he said they will be seeking the reversal of the cuts.

“It has essentially stripped the president of advisory services, such advisory services provided by Cabinet, the Defence Board, Press and Publicity, protocol, climate change et cetera. These cuts are both on employment cost and other charges.

Over 122 staff members and their jobs are on the line and access to public financing for the president’s functions, for him to discharge his responsibilities, access essentially has been denied by these cuts,” Dr. Luncheon stated.

Included in the Gy$20.9B cut from the Gy$192.8B proposed budget were two reductions under the OP heading on which the administration is focusing; the first is the allocation for contract employees which was reduced from Gy$297M to Gy$150M and the other for minor works which was slashed from Gy$104.2M to Gy$24.2.

According to the cabinet Secretary, it has “severely compromised” the ability of the president to discharge his constitutional obligations and it is on those grounds the legal challenge will be mounted. He added that many of the projects started by OP since the start of Ramotar’s term have been left in limbo as a result of the cuts.

Asked when that court action would be launched he responded “soon.”

The opposition APNU and AFC used their one-seat majority in the 65-seat National Assembly to force the budget cuts and have stated that they are prepared to approve supplementary provisions if they see the reforms they want.

However, the government has expressed little faith in the opposition’s offer of supplementary provisions pointing to the opposition’s vote against a supplementary paper earlier this year which was for funds spent last year.

That paper is currently back before the House and will come up at one of two sittings scheduled for next week. According to Dr. Luncheon, it should provide a practical test of the opposition’s sincerity.

This latest indication to move to the court follows another earlier this week when Attorney General Anil Nandlall announced that the government will this week appeal a High Court ruling on the administration’s challenge of opposition moves to reconfigure the parliamentary Committee of Selection.