One day before Guyanese workers celebrate Labour Day Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh has said that some government employees will have to be let go as a result of the $20.9B cut in the national budget which has affected salaries for some entities.
He made the comment Monday at a news conference on the opposition’s adjustment of the $192.8B budget the government proposed a month ago.
“I can say with certainty that the funds that were intended to finance these people’s salaries are no longer available. I can say with certainty that some jobs will go,” the minister said when pressed about reports of impending job cuts.
Dr. Singh did not specify which entities will be downsized or how soon. Both the $130.4M subsidy and $15M capital works allocation for the Government Information Agency (GINA) were cut while the National Communications Network (NCN) will be without an $81M subsidy and $65M in capital expenditure. The latter, however, is a registered and pulled in some $508M in revenues last year.
Subsidies for the State Planning Secretariat ($105M), Ethnic Relations Commission ($99.4) and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit ($20M) were also cut out of the budget.
“I can tell you that we are in the process right now literally as you and I speak, several agencies and offices of government are considering the next step, what is to be done now.
You have some instances where budgets have ben cut to zero, we need o consider how that is dealt with, we have some instances where budgets were cut by a certain amount, we need to reconsider how those entities will continue operating with the loss of this fund source,” Dr. Singh said.
The minister added that they are considering the matter from all angles including the industrial relations one.
On the specific case of GINA the minister said they still need to disseminate government information and are committed to doing so and will be looking to find a way of fulfilling that in the absence of a budget allocation.
An allocation for contract employees under the Office of the President was also slashed by more than half from $297M to $147M.
The opposition parties in justifying cuts to the agencies to the two state media entities have pointed to what they say is the bias in favour of the government and have called for the agencies to be reformed. The APNU and AFC have also pointed to the government’s sloth in complying with the Auditor General’s recommendations that CANU be placed under the Home Affairs Ministry instead of Finance and that State Planning be merged with the latter ministry instead of being a separate entity.
The government has argued that both processes are underway.
Source: Demwaves