By Sabatini Daniels
David Granger
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Chairman David Granger said the government must set up a tripartite budget committee if the three political parties in Parliament are to progress on budgetary 2014 talks.
Speaking at his party’s weekly press briefing last Friday, Granger reminded that in December 2011 he had approached President Donald Ramotar about setting up a tripartite budget committee. He said to date, the committee had not been set up, so he was “not optimistic” about budget talks this year.
“I do believe that if we do not get a favourable response to the request that we made, there will be another collision next year when we come to the budget.” When asked if he thinks such comments could be harmful leading up to budget consultations, Granger said what could be harmful is the government not setting up the committee, as that was causing the greatest harm to tripartite budgetary collaboration.
Priorities
He noted that his party’s list of priorities will not be much different from last year, adding that this year it will focus more on education.
Some of the direct issues APNU will be looking to address in next year’s budget are: funding for the University of Guyana and greater expenditure for school infrastructure.
He recalled that many of the opposition parties’ demands last year were not met, noting that this was one of the reasons they were forced to make some cuts to the budget. “You will recall even in the midst of the budget talks Mr [Khemraj] Ramjattan from the Alliance For Change (AFC) and I had sent a joint letter to the president and although we met with him in a tripartite forum, he never really acceded to some of the demands that we were making.” He said the APNU will be ready very soon for budget consultations.
Budget 2014
AFC leader Ramjattan last week disclosed that the three political parties will soon meet to commence tripartite budget consultations for Budget 2014, since Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh recently indicated his readiness. He disclosed that a date will be set shortly for the three parties to meet.
According to Ramjattan, his party had asked that consultations commence since July 1, which is the date budget preparations commence for the coming year, but the invitation did not come. “We are not going to make big bones about that… let’s have at least a continuous engagement so that there can be a win/ win scenario.”
The 2013 budget consultations between the three parties ended on a bad note, since they could not reach consensus. As a result, the opposition parties gutted the budget by Gy$ 31.4 billion from Gy$ 208.8 billion to Gy$ 177.4 billion.
Two major cuts were monies allocated for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Expansion Project and the specialty hospital project. At present, the government is seeking to have the cuts restored.
