Cheddi Jagan on budget cuts: 17 years later

By Moses Nagamootoo MP  
Lawyers for Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Raphael Trotman, have appealed the decision of the Acting Chief Justice in the so-called Budget Cut Case.
In effect, the ruling states that the elected officials of the Guyanese people in the National Assembly cannot amend or cut any allocation in the Estimates. The National Assembly can approve or disapprove of the whole Budget.
In all previous budgets, the National Assembly has been guided by its Standing Orders which provide for amendments to increase any head of expenditure or to reduce any head of expenditure.
Standing Order 76 provides for such amendments “An amendment to any Head of Expenditure to reduce the sum allocated thereto in respect of any item therein may be moved by any Member, and shall take the form of a Motion.”, and Standing Order 77 is the procedure on how and when the Appropriations Bill is to be introduced after the Estimates have been approved, with or without amendments.
With the National Assembly being placed in a straitjacket, the AFC indorses the statement made by Mr. Eusi Kwayana (Stabroek News Friday, February 21, 2014) that the Budget Debate and the Committee of Supply process are likely to be a “High Farce”. We agree with Mr. Kwayana that Standing Order 76 is the authorizing rule for amendments.
I was a member of the Standing Orders Committee chaired during the 9th Parliament by Government Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, and I can testify that in revising the Standing Orders, we did NOT touch or change Standing Order 76.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan, late President and an architect of our modern legislative system, must have long shared that view also, that not only the estimates but a charge on the Consolidated Fund could be reduced.
On December 4, 1952 Dr. Jagan had moved an amendment to a motion to reduce pound fees for animals. Pound fees were then 48 cents for cattle and 24 cents per head for goats and sheep. It was increased to $2.00 and $1.00 respectively per day. The increase was oppressive on cattle-rearers in areas such as Campbellville, Bel Air, Sophia, Liliendaal, who provided most of the city with milk.
Dr. Jagan also proposed cuts in monies for government printing to advertise tourism, and for wives of colonial officers to take holidays in England. The latter he saw as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Then he directed the scissors at the Governor’s salary, arguing that it was not equitable for him to get $400, whilst civil servants got between $150 and $200 per month.
Dr. Jagan also proposed that the vote for the Speaker, Ministers and Members of an Upper House be slashed by half. The Upper House, he had argued, was superfluous…and he wanted to cut down on waste. He was to withdraw that amendment. That is the history that the pseudo-PPP, now in power, have gleefully ignored and violated!  Clearly, this PPP has lost Cheddi Jagan’s revolutionary legacy, and seek to brutally cut down all that for which he had fought and sacrificed.
The AFC fears that with the 2014 National Budget, likely to be presented on March 24, it is unclear whether the National Assembly would be able to debate and dispose of it in accordance with the rules of procedure of the Assembly, as set out in the Standing Orders.