Opposition fails to honour 2014 budget commitments – Luncheon
April 22, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under News, Source
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon, in a recent public missive, reflected on the 2014 budget debate and concluded that the commitments made by the opposition were not being honoured.
According to Luncheon with the exercise formally ended, the Appropriation Act has left “tens of billions of dollars” from the package that the Minister of Finance tendered to President Donald Ramotar for his assent.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon
Dr. Luncheon said, further, that one can reflect on the pre-budget debate and the public utterance that accompany the budget debate and note that negotiations were obviously appropriate in this season. “Unfortunately they never got off the ground.”
Equally important, said Dr. Luncheon, is an observation that in the pre budget utterances, “the opposition very often departed from the actual decisions that were made, an observation that we felt, agency after agency, Ministry after Ministry, the disconnect in what was promised, what was being voted as the opposition intentions and the proverbial day of decision what was done.”
He outlined that it would be interesting to have the opposition explain its “apparent disconnect, it would be more interesting however to have the opposition share their rationale for the actions, decisions that they have made that in essence provided the provisions in the Appropriation Act.”
According to Dr. Luncheon, “The outcome of what the Appropriation Act called for is with a sense that there is need for evolution to take place in the absence of which we can expect gridlock, more gridlock and divisiveness.”
The Head of the Presidential Secretariat said that there must be some reason that the opposition “can offer to Guyanese people why they have taken us down this road.”
He added that some explanation must be demanded as to what precisely are the motives of the combined opposition in exposing Guyanese people “to such indignity”.
The combined opposition (A Partnership for National Unity APNU and Alliance for Change AFC) have signaled individually their own reasons for disapproving of over $37 Billion from the $220 Billion that was budgeted by government for 2014.
For the most part, the concerns of the opposition had to deal with misuse and corruption in the areas that they outlined for non approval.
Funding for the Amaila Falls Hydro project, the Specialty Hospital, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion, subsidies to state run entities (National Communications Network and Government Information News Agency) and the Amerindian Development Fund were not approved.
Additionally the combined opposition had indicated that because important line items which they had no problems with; such as funding for Office of the President and for Hinterland Airstrips among others were linked with areas of contention they were disapproved.
The AFC had indicated that should the Finance Minister reinstate them with supplementary appropriations the AFC will give its support to have it passed.