MINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh has charged that cuts to the 2013 National Budget proposed by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) member, Carl Greenidge, is a window to his past where, as former PNC Finance Minister, he presided over the collapse of Guyana’s economic and social infrastructure. He made the observation yesterday during a televised interview on the National Communications Network (NCN), in the course of which he pointed out that the projects targeted for cuts were those which go to the core of national and individual wellbeing in Guyana. “I don’t know by what stretch of imagination Mr Greenidge believes he is going to be able to persist in these cuts without being rejected roundly by the people of Guyana,” Dr Singh said. “It’s unbelievable! They are all important social and development programmes!” Pointing to the fact that all the cuts were proposed by Greenidge, he said: “Bear in mind, too, that Mr. Greenidge was Finance Minister from 1983 to 1992, the worst years of Guyana’s economic performance; the years during which our infrastructure and social programmes collapsed; our schools ended up being without chalk, basic supplies and without books; and our hospitals ended up being without medicines. Mr. Carl Greenidge was the Finance Minister who presided over that decline.” The Finance Minister also highlighted the important fact that during his tenure as Minister, Greenidge’s policies “did not reflect a concern for the people of Guyana. There was no national housing programme, no housing developments like we have today, where tens of thousands of Guyanese have access to their own plots of land. Even as a Minister, Mr. Greenidge displayed no particular empathy for the people of Guyana or no particular concern for developmental projects.” Pointing out Greenidge’s constant reminder that he was Minister when the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) was launched during the 1989 to 1992 period, Minister Singh observed: “It mustn’t be forgotten that he was the Minister of Finance that created the conditions that made the ERP necessary. He was also Finance Minister from 1983 to 1999, prior to the ERP, and during which the rot set in. So he presided as Finance Minister over the detailed collapse of the Guyanese economy, and that is an inescapable fact. So perhaps, we shouldn’t be so surprised at those cuts and in particular, we shouldn’t be so surprised given where they are coming from.” The APNU/Greenidge cuts approved thus far target the Specialty Hospital, State television NCN, the information arm of the Office of the President, GINA and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL).