Opposition warned against boycotting scrutiny of $44.7B supplementary budget

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Former Member

Opposition warned against boycotting scrutiny of $44.7B supplementary budget

Aug 08, 2022 News -- Source -- https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...upplementary-budget/

By Davina Bagot

Kaieteur News – The Opposition is being warned against boycotting Parliament today where a $44.7B supplementary budget by the government is to be considered.

AFC Chairperson, Catherine Hughes

Transparency advocate Dr. Yog Mahadeo said that the political decision by the group that represents close to half of the voters in Guyana must be not be taken lightly as a whopping $44.7 billion will be withdrawn for spending by the government, without being scrutinised by those whose job is to do just that. Mahadeo in an invited comment on the matter told Kaieteur News that the proposed boycott of Parliament plays right into the hands of the ruling party. He explained, “Lack of scrutiny and oversight at the National Assembly is an obvious outcome as the cycle of corruption and cronyism continues.” Mahadeo continued that the proposed boycott is a political decision that will not do any good, but rather give the PPP/C free rein to allocate funds as they desire.

“Guyana needs nationalistic thinking – decisions that can create a better future for all Guyanese, not just for a party or its loyalists. I think that the Coalition can do better in developing political strategies.”

Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones has confirmed that their side of the House will not be present at tomorrow’s Sitting of the National Assembly

Addressing the root cause of the boycott, Mahadeo said he believes the attempt to remove the mace was “illogical, improper and ineffective”. Additionally, the founding member of civil society organization, Article 13 reasoned, “We must remember that Guyana’s winner-takes-all politics renders a minority party ineffective since a majority party will do whatever it wants. The Coalition was in power just three short years ago and squandered its opportunity to make fundamental changes to our political system. The current ruling party, while in opposition, bandied around all verbiage in proposing change. But now in power, nothing substantive will happen because they enjoy their dominance.”

Leader of the Opposition Mr. Aubrey Norton last Tuesday told a rally that the government will be left to speak to itself, as his side of the House will not be present today to scrutinize the $44.7 billion being sought in supplementary funding. Norton was keen to note that the decision was arrived at following what was described as the “unconstitutional suspension” of eight Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs). The MPs were suspended over the unauthorised removal of the mace last December. The Opposition was hoping to secure a court order to prevent the suspension of the MPs from the National Assembly; however, the High Court refused to grant an injunction.

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton

The A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change APNU+AFC MPs: Sherod Duncan, Christopher Jones, Ganesh Mahipaul and Natasha Singh-Lewis will be required to be absent from four consecutive sittings, while Annette Ferguson, Maureen A. Philadelphia, Tabitha Halley and Vinceroy Jordan would be suspended for six consecutive sittings. It was revealed that the MPs will each lose four to six days pay each month and they would not be allowed within the precincts of the Parliament Building or Chamber, use of the library or participation in committee meetings.

On Saturday, the Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones in an exclusive interview with this publication confirmed that the APNU faction will not be present at the scheduled Sitting. In this regard, he was asked how he feels about missing an opportunity to examine the $44.7 billion in additional funds being requested, six months after a $552.9 billion Budget was passed.

To this, he explained, that the Speaker of the National Assembly has not been allowing the Opposition to function as it should, and he believes that questions would be casually dismissed as per normal, by the PPP MPs. “We have been scrutinising these financial papers forever and we have been asking questions in the National Assembly and the answers that we get are less than any answer, so even in being there, you ask them a million questions and they don’t answer,” The MP pointed out, adding, “We raised these matters with the Speaker for him to somewhat instruct them to answer but as the Standing Order puts it, a Minister can answer in the way he or she chooses.”

Dr. Yog Mahadeo

Jones said that due to this provision, ministers are allowed to share “absolutely no details” which is the usual course. This means, he said, “The PPP has made a mockery of the Parliamentary settings that would allow for scrutiny, transparency and accountability. We had lines of questions before that were dismissed by the Agriculture Minister for example, who was questioned by Khemraj Ramjattan. The Minister responded by saying the same way in which you used to give gun licence.”

Confident that its presence in the National Assembly will reap no benefit in understanding the need for the additional funds, the Opposition said it will be dissecting the financial papers on social media to share its views over the next few days. In addition, the Chief Whip indicated that an Opposition press conference will be hosted on Tuesday where the parties would make its position known on the supplementary budget.

He was keen to note that, “some of the provisions that they are asking for, there is the Standing Orders that state the only time you can come with a supplementary document is when the matters that you are requesting the money would have had to be unforeseen. In one of them, they got $4 billion for electricity arrears.”

In light of this, Jones enquired, “How is it that a Ministry doesn’t know that at the end of every month, they got to pay electricity and every year in the Budget, there is an allocation for electricity charges. So how is it that they coming for electricity charges and arrears, so therefore where is the money that we allocated year after year for the Ministry of Finance to pay GPL?”

Particularly interesting the Opposition MP said was that none of the supplemental funding will go towards addressing the cost of living crisis burdening every Guyanese. He argued that nothing was being done to subsidize the cost of electricity or reduce the cost of basic food items, all while public servants continue to be ignored an increase of salary.

AFC to join APNU

Similarly, the AFC Chairperson, Catherine Hughes said that the party’s MPs will not be attending the sitting on Monday, as it will be standing in solidarity with the eight MPs suspended since they were not given a hearing. According to her, “We are standing in solidarity with them just because due process did not take place.” She was posed with the same question, if the AFC believes it would be missing an opportunity to offer scrutiny on the monies being requested.

She explained, “The reality is that Parliament really has not operated to the level that it is intended to operate.” Hughes sought to put in perspective that the Parliamentary Session will be closing off by Wednesday, however the Opposition continues to be sidelined by the government’s side with the assistance of the Speaker in throwing out Motions that seek to address national issues, such as the high cost of living and full liability coverage for example. As such, she told Kaieteur News that none of the Opposition recommendations have been considered to date, as government simply uses its majority to pull the strings. Hughes assured that the AFC will also be scrutinizing the money in the public domain to highlight its thoughts on the additional funding. More importantly, the Chairperson reasoned, “What is most offensive also is the lack of information. You are asking for billions of dollars and your explanations are so broad for development. There is absolutely no breakdown of what the project is.”

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Former Member

$44.7B supplementary budget approved in absence of opposition

Aug 09, 2022 News -- Source -- https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...sence-of-opposition/ https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...sence-of-opposition/

Kaieteur News – A supplementary provision that more than doubled last year’s additional sums, was yesterday passed in the National Assembly with the Housing Ministry receiving a significant portion of the $44.7B approved for government business set for the rest of the year.

Housing Minister Colin Croal

In the absence of the Parliamentary opposition who boycotted sitting, a number of ministers sought to question their colleagues on the specifics of the additional sums. Housing Minister Collin Croal secured over $21B for additional resources to support infrastructure in new and existing housing schemes, hinterland water supply intervention, costal water supply and urban sewage and water. Responding to a question from his colleague, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, Coral said that the quality of water delivered to households remains an issue for government. On the coastland, he said only 52 percent of persons receives treated water. As such, the government is working to have 90 percent of treated water delivered to households by 2025 and that is expected to cost some $28B. To start the process, the majority of the $4.2B under the coastal water treatment line item will go toward the construction of seven new costal water treatment plants in Regions 2; 3 and 4. Together, the new facilities will benefit around 92,400 households. Twelve treatment plants are also set to be upgraded in Regions 3, 4, 5 and 6 while others are set for expansion work. Under urban sewage and water, Croal said that Turkeyen and shelterbelt will see new wells being drilled, while the Linden water treatment plant will be expanded and upgraded, and the changing of century old pipes which had started in surrounding areas will continue on Sheriff Street.

Minister of Public Works Juan Edgill

The ailing Guyana Sugar Company (GuySuCo) will receive some $3.4B in addition to the $6B it received in the 2022 budget. About $2B will go toward covering the company’s operational expenses while the remainder will go toward the recapitalization of the company. In answering questions, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said that in 2020, the corporation was operating at 45 to 49 percent capacity as critical parts for capital works were missing or at the end of its life. As such, he said that capitalization sums are necessary for the company to be modernized and work efficiently. Answering a question from the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), the minister announced that at the Rose Hall estate out of 1038 retrenched workers, 692 have been rehired with a number of capital works already completed to optimize the estate.

At least 50 acres of land will be utilized for the groups of differently able persons, young people and women that will be involved in the $1.7M black belly sheep program. The Mahaica Mahaicony Abary – Agricultural Development Authority and hinterland persons are among those that will benefit from this program. As part of its work in leading the Caribbean food security program, Guyana will be seeking to create a regional brand that will eventually phase out the Australian and New Zealand sheep which the Caribbean has been dependant on. He said that Guyana has the land and the climate and will be seeking to have the 1000 black belly sheep from Barbados play a role in providing food security.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha

Under the Ministry of Public Works, Minister Juan Edghill charged that “neglect” was the reason that the government was seeking some sums from the more than $4B allocation. He claimed that pontoons at the Demerara Harbour Bridge as well as ferries used to link some regions were sorely neglected. Over $300M was approved for those items.

Despite a line of credit being available to Guyana government since 2014 for the East Bank, East Coast Demerara road link, Minister Edghill said it was not used. As a result of the delays to the project, cost came in at more than the $50M line of credit that was provided by India. The monies being sought for the road link, Edghill said, will thus facilitate government’s contractual obligations to the contractor. The road he said, is intended to prevent persons from the East Coast heading to the different areas on the East Bank to get to their location without having to go through areas that are known to be congested.

As it relates to miscellaneous roads, the Public Works Ministry received $3B in addition to the $15B received in the 2020 budget. Minister Edghill assured that his ministry executes road works at the same quality and with equity; so when the question was asked to identify the miscellaneous roads, he opted not to do so as to “avoid confusion and not interrupt social cohesion.”

8/9/222:41 PM

DjangoAdmin

The largest historic budget to date for the year 2022 ,G$597.6 Billion .

https://finance.gov.gy/histori...y-national-assembly/

8/10/2211:14 AM

Former Member

$44.7B surplus budget, a slush fund for continued PPP corruption – Norton

Aug 10, 2022 News -- Source -- https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...p-corruption-norton/

Kaieteur News – Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton is confident that the $44.7 billion approved in the National Assembly on Monday will aid in the continued corrupt practices of the incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) government.

In an Opposition press conference on Tuesday, he justified the decision by his side of the House to abstain from the Sitting, noting among his reasons that it was important to send a clear message to the administration that it will not accept the “illegal” suspension of its eight Members of Parliament (MPs).

Norton explained, “What we saw was the presentation of a request for finances, to continue to have a slush fund for the PPP’s corruption, handout and bribery of voters, and so we thought that we couldn’t be in that environment.”

The Leader of the Opposition told the press that before publicly announcing the boycott of the day’s proceedings, at the Rally held on August 2 last, the joint Opposition convened a meeting where it was decided that there was no point of attending the Sitting and that they would get the information they need outside the confines of Parliament Building.

Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton

He argued, “We believe it would have been an act to legitimise the illegal suspension of members of the Opposition if we had attended, because one, we have challenged the matter in Court and every child knows that if people didn’t get a hearing then there’s a violation of the rules of natural justice and so there was no way we were going to go. We had to be in solidarity with the Members of Parliament of the APNU+AFC who they have arbitrarily gotten rid of.”

The A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change APNU+AFC MPs: Sherod Duncan, Christopher Jones, Ganesh Mahipaul and Natasha Singh-Lewis will be required to be absent from four consecutive sittings, while Annette Ferguson, Maureen A. Philadelphia, Tabitha Halley and Vinceroy Jordan would be suspended for six consecutive sittings. It was revealed that the MPs will lose pay and will not be allowed within the precincts of the Parliament Building or Chamber, use of the library or participation in committee meetings, over the ruckus caused in the House back in December, during an attempt to steal the Mace.

Besides the “arbitrary” suspension of its MPs, Norton also believes that the surplus budget presented and approved to the tune of $44.7 billion did not include any provision to ease the cost of living crisis prevailing in the country. He pointed out that just before Monday’s Sitting, the Speaker threw out a Motion to discuss the current inflationary pressures.

He was keen to point out too that the PPP also refused a request by the Opposition to deliberate on the now passed Hemp Bill in the Select Committee, to allow all stakeholders to be involved on crafting the legislation.

The Opposition Leader informed, “At that Parliamentary session, the PPP made it clear that they are not encouraging any discussion on the Hemp Bill and that they were going ahead and since they had a majority, minus eight, it made no sense to go. We felt we put the information in the public domain and as a form of protest, stayed away from Parliament.”

In fact, he pointed out, “The present Speaker is on record at some stage in his Parliamentary life, I think it was while he was a Minister (saying)…the Opposition will have their say and we will have the way. What that means is that they have no interest in Parliamentary democracy and therefore we cannot operate as if it is business as usual.”

To this end, Norton said the Opposition will “selectively take action” to ensure it is made clear to the PPP that the Parliament is a charade, and that the body does not perform the functions it should. Measures will also be taken to alert the public of this, he said, noting that one such way is by boycotting Sittings of the National Assembly. The Opposition Leader was keen to note, however, that not all Sittings will be boycotted, as the political group is devising “tactical decisions” to prove to the world that the country simply does not have a democratic Parliament.

8/10/221:41 PM

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