President says move to elections not off the table

- in face of ongoing political gridlock

By Vanessa Narine, May 3, 2014, Source

THE 2014 Appropriation Act, which was passed in the National Assembly on April 16 was assented to by then Acting President Samuel Hinds last Tuesday evening, meeting the required deadline.However, President Donald Ramotar yesterday told this newspaper that resort to general elections is not off the table.

His comments followed the acknowledgement of the ongoing challenges his administration faces with the seemingly unending political gridlock that has been the source of many controversies, the most recent of which is the 2014 Budget cuts.

“You can’t take this option off the table at all because of the kind of behaviour we are seeing by the Opposition,” he said.

(QUOTE) ‘This is not what we would have wanted. If the Opposition was giving a little cooperation, we could move this country forward, but we have had no cooperation over the last two and a half years. We have no help from the Opposition in supporting any of the developmental projects, despite the fact that consultations were held with them extensively. I even told those (Opposition members) if there is any project they have difficulty with, tell me and I will make a presentation on any additional information that is needed. They don’t want that. They want to snipe in a corner at all these projects that will have transformative effects on our country.’

NO COOPERATION
The President made it clear that the elections route is not the first choice of his Government and he bemoaned the lack of cooperation from the Opposition Parliamentary Parties.

He said: “This is not what we would have wanted. If the Opposition was giving a little cooperation, we could move this country forward, but we have had no cooperation over the last two and a half years. We have no help from the Opposition in supporting any of the developmental projects, despite the fact that consultations were held with them extensively. I even told those (Opposition members) if there is any project they have difficulty with, tell me and I will make a presentation on any additional information that is needed. They don’t want that. They want to snipe in a corner at all these projects that will have transformative effects on our country.”

The implementation of many programmes and functioning of many entities, including the Office of the President, has been affected by the budget cuts as evidenced where allocations in some areas have been reduced to zero.
Under the allocation for the Office of the President, the cuts include: $245M for the Presidential Guard services; $95M for the provision of developmental and humanitarian aid, among other initiatives; $10M for the Office of the First Lady; $73.5M for the Guyana Energy Agency; $119M for the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest); $122M for the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST); $17M for the Integrity Commission; and $28.5M for the Office of the Commissioner of Information.

The other cuts include $18.5B for the LCDS initiatives; $450M for loans for University of Guyana students; $725M for the poverty alleviation programme; $7M for the different rights commissions; $795M for the Basic Needs Trust Fund; and $4M for support to non-governmental organisations and the private sector.

Also on the chopping block were: the Specialty Hospital – $910M; upgrading of Regional and District Hospitals, including Port Kaituma, Kwakwani, Linden, Bartica, Eye Surgery Operating Room at Linden etc. – $360M; ambulances, ATVs and Boats – $42M; surgical equipment and instruments – $32M; the Amerindian Development Fund – $1.1B; other Amerindian programmes, such as ATVs, tractors etc. – $40M; the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) modernisation project – $6.6B; Civil Aviation – $50M; and hinterland airstrips – $185M.

In total the allocations’ cuts from the 2014 budget represented nine capital programme budgets and one current programme budget.

ANTI-DEVELOPMENT
According to the Head of State, the Opposition’s actions are clearly indicative of their position on a development thrust, which, at the end of the day, seeks to improve the lives of the Guyanese people.

Mr. Ramotar said: “This year’s Budget cut is another area where the Opposition has shown themselves to be totally anti-developmental. They seem to be attacking anything that can help to advance the economic and social development in our society.”

He cited the cuts to the allocations geared towards the advancement of the livelihoods of Guyana’s first people, the Amerindians.

The President said: “We all know in this country that one of the poorest areas is the hinterland and we have done, since we have been in Government, a lot to help the hinterland areas, the Amerindian communities, to come out of poverty. We have advanced education, health and water supply; all of which are aimed to try to create conditions for the economic development of the Amerindian people. If you look at this Budget, at the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF), it includes allocations that seek to increase the capacity of the various villages. This is what has been targeted for cuts….we have seen cuts again this year in a totally callous way….I do not know why the Opposition made these vicious cuts.”

Ramotar concluded that the Opposition, in particular the main Opposition – A Partnership for National Unity, seems intent on returning the country to the days of underdevelopment and stagnated progress.

He said: “Clearly they have an agenda; when they were in Government they drove our country to poverty and now that they are not in Government they seem determined to do the same thing again. The Opposition seems to feel that keeping people in poverty will be better for them; that is the only conclusion I can come to.”

This year the cuts totalled a whopping $37.4B, reducing the $220B National Budget to $182.6B. Last year, the combined Opposition cut the budget by $31B; and in 2012 by $21B.

On January 29 this year, Acting Chief Justice (CJ) Ian Chang ruled that the National Assembly has no right to cut the National Budget. In the Preliminary Ruling given in June 2012, the CJ had ruled that the National Assembly had a role to either approve or disapprove of the National Estimate, not to cut them. A Notice of Appeal of Chief Justice Chang’s decision was filed in February this year by Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Attorney-at-Law Khemraj Ramjattan, on behalf of Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, who was listed as the appellant in the court.