The opposition using its one-seat majority in the National Assembly voted down more than Gy$ 800 million in expenditure for the Office of the President (OP) when the Committee of Supply of the Parliament met to consider the estimates of the 2012 budget. This will result in several projects being affected and some persons losing their jobs.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Shadow Finance Minister Carl Greenidge proposed four of the amendments to the estimates for the President’s Office, while Alliance For Change (AFC) Chairman and MP Khemraj Ramjattan proposed two amendments.
Greenidge proposed that Parliament cut Gy$ 170 million from a Gy$ 6.7 billion allocation under line item 1212000, which catered for Information Technology development. Some of the money under this line item is part of a concessional loan and grant aid that the government was getting from the People’s Republic of China for several ICT related projects.
Junior Finance Minister Bishop Juan Edghill explained at length in Parliament the fact that the monies would be used to set up government’s e-governance unit and acquire necessary equipment and services related to the One Laptop Per Family Project, the laying of the fibre-optic cable from Lethem to Linden and to Georgetown, as well as other related ICT projects and undertakings.
Edghill pleaded with the opposition not to put such important projects on the line, arguing that minus the game of politics, there was nothing “nationalistic” about the amendment proposed by Greenidge.
Junior Finance Minister Bishop Juan Edghill
He took issue too with Greenidge’s decision to move ahead with the proposed Gy$ 95 million cut under line item 1700100 captioned “Minor Works”. Hinds explained that this sum usually is voted for monies which the president would traditionally use to assist groups and agencies as well as communities that may ask for some sort of assistance when they meet with the president or he visits them.
He said “the opposition was not harming the president or doing him any injustice, but rather it was the people that stood to lose as the president would be unable to extend such assistance”.
AFC’s Ramjattan had also proposed a Gy$ 150 million cut to funds allocated for contract employees under the Office of the President which would see several advisory and Cabinet staff members sent packing and on the breadline after it was approved.
The AFC, which was supported by the APNU, felt that the monies earned by some of these individuals were too much and “a waste of taxpayers’ money”.
Some 121 contract employees, as well as advisors are on staff at OP. Even though calls were made by both PM Hinds and Minister Edghill for the reconsideration of these cuts in each area, both Ramjattan and Greenidge went ahead, with the amendments getting only opposition support after it was put to a vote.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, speaking with Guyana Times International in the wee hours of Thursday morning, said the moves and amendments were unjustified and totally uncalled for.
“The cuts were without any rhyme or reason, or without any sensible basis and designed to show political bullyism and might,” he said sternly. “I would urge the opposition to abandon this reckless… application of the tyrannical scissors for the purposes of political demonstration,” the senior cabinet minister had urged earlier on but to no avail.
He could not understand the rationale that would see Guyana accepting grant aid and a concessional loan from China and its people, but reneging on a responsibility to provide a mere Gy$ 170 million in local resources to see various aspects of ICT projects to completion.
Snap poll
The chances of President Donald Ramotar calling a snap election are increasing with each cut made to the 2012 National Budget estimates.
A source close to the government told this publication on Wednesday that the administration is “growing impatient” and “becoming more concerned about the worrisome attitudes and posture of the opposition”, as displayed under the new dispensation.
The source, speaking under conditions of anonymity, explained that the president still has not ruled out the calling of fresh elections in an attempt to secure a majority in the National Assembly.
“Lots of commitment have been given by both the president, his cabinet and MPs to work under the new dispensation and make compromises where necessary as result of dialogue with the opposition, but government remains concerned that the opposition refuse to budge and change course even when lots of information and clarity is given to them on issues of concern,” the source explained.
The source admitted that Cabinet and the president were closely monitoring the developments in Parliament, especially as it relates to the consideration and subsequent approval or non-approval of the estimates of the 2012 budget, before any definitive position is arrived at on the calling on snap elections.
