| Fiddling with nation’s financial architecture will lead to chaos-Nadir ….parties still to agree on next Parliamentary sitting |  |  |  |
| Written by Gary Eleazar |
| Sunday, 17 February 2013 22:58 |
THE parliamentary political parties are yet to agree on a date for the next sitting of the National Assembly, but the first order up for business would be to complete the debate on a restructuring of the preparations for the national budget.
 Manzoor Nadir A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), through its finance point-man, Carl Greenidge, is piloting Amendments to the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, that looks to remove preparation of the budgets for several constitutional bodies from the executive branch of government. Under the proposed legislation, that has been gazetted and for which the House has already commenced debate, “the public officer responsible for managing the affairs of an agency or such other person designated by an appropriate authority for the purpose, shall submit budget proposals to the Clerk of the National Assembly, who shall ensure that those budget proposals are submitted as presented.” Under the current regime, the Budget Agency would submit proposals to the Ministry of Finance, which would be used as source data for preparing the national expenditures and presented firstly to Cabinet for approval. Following Cabinet’s approval the Budget is then presented to the National Assembly for its approval or disapproval. Under the proposed regime by Greenidge, the Finance Minister’s involvement in the process would be to offer comments and consult on format as against content of the budget proposals. The proposals by Greenidge are being argued as ridiculous as espoused by government speakers to the debate thus far. Manzoor Nadir, former Minister of Labour, who currently holds a parliamentary seat with the Peoples Progressive Party Civic ((PPP/C), says that “the devil is in the details.” He suggested that, “one has to listen carefully to Greenidge, many times he say the intention of the Bill….the intention is one thing but the written word he is moving is another.” Nadir told the House that Greenidge erroneously ‘pontificates,’ that the legislation proposed allows for the Finance Minister to provide guidelines, “but the clause he wants to introduce reduces the Finance Minister to consultation and discussion only on the format.” Nadir is adamant: “What the amendment does is make a radical departure from a time honoured principle that the Executive is best placed to deal with budgetary matters.” He reminded the House that in Westminster political systems, such as the one inherited by Guyana, “when a budget fails, government resigns.” Nadir suggests that APNU’s proposal seeks to place the constitutional “agencies outside of a national process of preparation of budget and managing financial resources…We are fiddling with the financial architecture of the nation that could lead to confusion and chaos.” Greenidge a former Finance Minister under the Peoples National Congress has been blamed by the ruling PPP/C administration for ‘presiding over the destruction of the nation’s economy.” Presidential Adviser on Empowerment, Odinga Lumumba, only recently had suggested during a debate in the House that should Bills be piloted by Opposition MPs other than Greenidge, there would be room for reasoning with a view to finding “common ground.” |
