AFC to take legal action against senior officers who engage in ‘illegal spending’
Considering that the 2014 Appropriation Bill has not been assented to, Leader of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, said that any spending from today will be deemed illegal.
President Donald Ramotar has not assented to the Appropriation Bill and the deadline ended last night.
Ramjattan also sent a strong warning to senior officials that if they are engaged in such spending, the AFC will move to the courts to seek jail sentences.
The AFC Leader at a press conference yesterday at the Side Walk CafÉ on Middle Street, reminded that given the assent of President Donald Ramotar, the Appropriation Bill would then legally authorize spending of all monies approved in the National Assembly during the budget debates.
The AFC Leader said, “To date we have not seen any assent to that amended Appropriation Bill and the very important point is that at 12:00 midnight if there (was) no assent to that Bill as amended by the Committee of Supply, Government could not do any legal spending.
“Any spending after that will be deemed illegal spending. Very many may not know but once the legislative authorization is given by Parliament by virtue of the Assembly’s passage and the assent of the President, then and only then there is any authorization for legal spending.
For the previous months, Article 219 of the Constitution provided four months of latitude from January to April for the authorization of the legal spending.
“We have reached the last day (yesterday). We have taken a look at the Official Gazette and the last one was April 26, but this was nothing about the assent to the Bill.”
When asked by this publication what action the opposition party is prepared to take if government moves forward with any such spending, Ramjattan said that the relevant ministers will be brought before the Committee of Privileges and Private Criminal Prosecution will be taken against senior officers.
He explained, “I have been doing research on this course of action and I will bring private criminal prosecution against senior officers that are going to sign off on the cheques to do spending.”
“Under the present law, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, has sort of immunized himself from prosecution by not putting in the word ‘Minister of Finance’ in Section 85 of the Financial Management and Accountability Act.
“It only has Public Officer. We amended that section of the Act to include the Minister but that too has not been assented to by the President and so right now only officers would be breaching the law if they were to spend money unauthorized.”
The politician assured that action can be taken against those officers at the private level because they would be breaching the Constitution and the Financial Management and Accountability Act.
“I hope they all understand that the Minister and President have immunized themselves while they are left out to be slaughtered.”
The lawyer said that this is the first time he is witnessing such a case with regard to the Appropriation Bill.
When asked what he believes to be Government’s motive for not wanting to assent to the Bill, he said, “I want to know if they want to call elections. They are creating a situation that will not encourage legal spending and if they call a no confidence vote in the amended Bill and call elections then we will be ready. But they too may not be fully prepared for such a call.”