Minister of Finance,
Dr. Ashni Singh

Although he has been referred to the Committee of Privileges twice, the Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh has either escaped on technicalities or has benefitted from undue delay in the parliamentary sanctioning process.

After making this declaration, A Partnership for National Unity’s Shadow Minister of Finance Carl Greenidge went further to state that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, who is also the Chairman of the Committee of Privileges, needs to do the “necessary” urgently because “we are looking at a Minister and Government who plans to spend whatever he wishes without reference to the need for prior approval.”

In essence, Greenidge said that the Finance Minister is basically benefitting from stalled parliamentary procedures.

On Thursday last, Greenidge laid a Motion in the National Assembly for the Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh to be referred to the Privileges Committee again on what he deemed to be contempt of the Assembly’s decision.

Greenidge’s Motion against Dr. Singh concerns his authorization of expenditure on a number of items, although the initial request for money to fund these items had been denied by the Assembly in April.

Government had forged ahead and spent $4.5 Billion of the $37.4 Billion, which had been cut by the political opposition from the $220 Billion Budget of 2014.
When Greenidge laid the Motion last Thursday, members of the government objected, saying that they were not notified about it but the Speaker explained that it did not require notice for it to be laid.

He added that he had to decide on whether there was a prima facie case for the Minister to answer as regards contempt of the Assembly.

To facilitate this process the clerk of the national assembly would have had to read the Motion but this was not the case.

“But rather than call a short break to permit this, the Speaker instead, requested time for him to do so. The Speaker then undertook to provide a written ruling urgently and before the next sitting,” Greenidge asserted. The Motion is now in a pending stage.

Raphael Trotman,
Speaker of the
National Assembly

There has been some debate already about whether Dr. Singh can spend the state’s money without the approval of the Assembly. Greenidge asserts that the circumstances under which he can spend without the prior authorization of the Assembly are set out in broad terms in Article 217 of the Constitution but more specifically, under a number of Sections of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act.

As it relates to the legal obligation of Dr. Singh and the previous Motion, Greenidge said that the Appropriation Act #10 of 2014 is an instruction of the Assembly.

That instruction, he said, explicitly declined to provide monies requested for GINA and NCN.

“He has subsequently failed to carry out the instruction and such failure or refusal constitutes contempt of the Assembly. The Minister is in the habit of defying the rules of the Assembly and has been twice referred to the Committee of Privileges for such behaviour. Up to now he has escaped on technicalities or has benefitted from undue delay in the process,” the politician asserted.

APNU’s Shadow Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge

Greenidge said that a similar motion, which was laid last year, was amended by the Speaker and the most serious charge eliminated.

“Secondly, the Committee has not yet been convened to look at this matter.”

Greenidge, according to reports, had failed to provide the House with “certain information” on the said Motion as requested by the Speaker.

But the Shadow Finance Minister explained, “I never received any request of that nature from the Speaker. Anyway, the matter of that mail, which was supposed to have been sent to me but for which I have not been able to find a dispatch document and which was never signed for or received by me, does not arise on this occasion.”

He added, “This is what I meant when I said that we are faced with a Constitutional crisis. The law is being recklessly disregarded. The Minister specially entrusted with responsibility to act on our behalf, subject to certain rules, behaves as though in is his personal and public life, he is above the law.”

“In any case, the Minister is not in a position to decide that the National Assembly is only entitled to scrutinize expenditure after the fact rather than to consider and approve or amend intended expenditure. Neither the Courts nor the Chief Justice (CJ) can authorize him to spend on that basis. The CJ explicitly said that he could not authorize the Minister to spend from the Contingencies Fund.”

“That is Parliament’s function and if the Minister, in anticipation of that approval spends, he is obliged to ensure that the expenditure is scrupulously within the framework of the rules set out for the exercise of that discretion. The CJ could not have and did not suggest that the Minister of Finance had unfettered discretion to spend any public funds. Nor may I add could he suggest that he, the CJ, had powers to waive the requirement that the Assembly approves or not the Minister’s request to clear the expenditures.”

“The FM&A Act stipulates the penalties for a Minister who is acting as though he is disrespectful of and is not bound by the law. Along with seeking resort to the Privileges Committee therefore, we shall approach the Courts,” the politician concluded.