Greenidge’s letter riddled with misrepresentations – he offered to suggest an alternative date for meeting and never did – Finance Minister

Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh today stated that a letter published in today’s Stabroek News and authored by Opposition finance spokesperson Carl Greenidge is riddled with misrepresentations, and is a poor attempt by Greenidge to absolve himself of responsibility for APNU’s abandonment of the budget talks.

First of all, the Minister highlighted that the date Government proposed for the meeting initially was February 28, a Thursday. The Minister said that he chose that date deliberately because on that Thursday, there was no Parliamentary sitting scheduled and because Parliamentary Committees do not normally meet on Thursday afternoons given the potential for clash with full sittings of the House. The Minister further stated that when he spoke with Mr. Greenidge on February 27 he explained this and Mr. Greenidge acknowledged that the February 28 meeting of the Public Accounts Committee was indeed an extraordinary one. On that basis, Mr. Greenidge asked for a postponement of the budget talks and offered to suggest an alternative date. He never did.

“For Mr. Greenidge to now turn around and say that I should have been aware of the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on that day is most astonishing, given that he and I discussed the basis for my scheduling of the meeting on  February 28, and he acknowledged that the PAC does not normally meet on Thursday afternoons for obvious reasons,” the Minister stated.

“In any event, the bottom line is, once Mr. Greenidge pointed out his unavailability on February 28, I readily agreed to reschedule the budget talks and invited Mr. Greenidge to propose an alternative date. Several weeks later he is still to do so, and that is the simple fact of the matter. No twisting and turning by Mr. Greenidge can change those facts.”

Secondly, Mr. Greenidge’s letter suggests that on  March 6, the Minister received a letter from the AFC indicating that that party would no longer participate in the budget talks. This is simply and patently untrue. No such letter was received by the Minister on  March 6 or at any time since that date. “This represents yet another example of Mr. Greenidge’s self-imposed alienation from the facts and from the truth,” Minister Singh stated.

“In fact, on the very  March 6, Mr. Greenidge emailed me and copied to Mr. Ramjattan indicating that he or Lance Carberry would get back to us on their proposed date for the meeting. At no point in time did Mr. Ramjattan, having been copied on that email, respond to indicate that his Party would not be participating further. Yet another example of Mr. Greenidge’s evident difficulties in remaining faithful to the facts,” the Minister added.

“I am publicly challenging Carl Greenidge to produce any evidence that Mr. Ramjattan or anybody else from the AFC ever wrote me to indicate that they were pulling out of the budget talks,” Minister Singh emphasised.

“The simple question to be asked is, having requested a postponement from February 28 and having offered to propose an alternative date, did Mr. Greenidge ever propose such an alternative date, either himself or through Mr. Carberry or any other member of the Opposition. The answer is no. And no amount of verbal gymnastics can absolve Mr. Greenidge from responsibility for his Party’s abandonment of the budget talks. He should own up to this fact and accept responsibility for shirking his obligations as the Opposition’s lead spokesperson on finance, instead of blaming everybody under the sun including his own Party colleagues,” Minister Singh added.

“It is noteworthy that Mr. Greenidge wants to blame the Government although the Government convened the talks and invited him to attend, he wants to blame the AFC for allegedly pulling out of the talks although the AFC did no such thing, he wants to blame his own PNC members for what he calls a smear campaign against him although they would be perfectly justified in their displeasure at his disappearance at this most critical period, he wants to blame everybody else in the whole world but himself, when he is the one who was unavailable to attend at the proposed date, and he is the one who failed to suggest an alternative time, and he is the one who failed to get his colleagues to suggest an alternative time on his behalf, and he is the one who failed to discharge his responsibilities as Opposition lead on finance, and he is the one who is still to offer an explanation for his refusal to participate in the talks,” Minister Singh pointed out.

“This most recent episode reminds one of Mr. Greenidge’s refusal to date to accept responsibility for the collapse and total failure of the economy and the dismantling of the most basic systems of financial accountability during his tenure from 1983 to 1992. In like manner as we are seeing now, Mr. Greenidge is still to acknowledge any shred of responsibility for the failed economic policies that caused the Guyanese economy to collapse and the abject failure of accountability systems during that time. Just as is the case now, Mr. Greenidge is inclined to blame everybody under the sun for his tragic and dismal performance as steward of Guyanese economy from 1983 to 1992, and wants to absolve himself of any blame whatsoever. It seems Greenidge is never responsible, somebody else is always to blame,” the Minister added.