Speaker of the House Ralph Ramkarran was last evening forced to suspend the sitting after remarks from AFC parliamentarian Khemraj Ramjattan provoked the ire of the MPs on the government side and led to two minutes of raucous behaviour during debate on the 2011 National Budget.
The offending statement came as Ramjattan attacked the government’s record on accountability, as he read from the book Improving Public Accountability: The Guyana Experience 1985 – 2007, by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran.
“He talks about transparency and accountability and said a lot is left to be desired and he talks about ministers of the ilk of Mr Irfaan Alli doing what they do that then leaves them in the Privileges Committee,” Ramjattan stated; and the government MPs erupted.
There were calls for Ramjattan to quote which part of the book mentioned Alli before the Speaker intervened and called for order for the presenter to continue. This was followed by government MP Robeson Benn rising and repeating the request for Ramjattan to quote the section amidst back and forth dialogue. But as the AFC chairman tried to continue the racket ensued forcing the Speaker to suspend the House for 15 minutes.
On the resumption, he upbraided the MPs for the breakdown in decorum and Ramjattan was allowed to continue his presentation which he completed shortly after. Alli, the housing and water minister, is before the committee for allegedly misleading the House last year on how a $4 billion supplementary allocation would be spent. It was later revealed that the money had been spent in 2009.
Before the interruption, Ramjattan had lambasted the government on transparency issues surrounding contracts in the construction sector.
“Each project is a one-time thing only and so cannot readily be priced. They are so many uncertainties in execution that it is not possible to draw up what economists refer to as a complete contract. As a result it is easy to evade the discipline that would otherwise be imposed by competitive tendering,” Ramjattan stated.
According to him, almost all of the contracts have to go back for readjustments. This, he posited, raises infrastructure costs, reduces growth and results in larger gaps between the rich and the poor. Ramjattan called for “solid monitoring” of projects and added that he was happy the World Bank has indicated that there must be properly designed projects before the climate change funds from Norway are disbursed.
“Why then the World Bank having gotten the US$30 million now after all this time haven’t given it for the projects? Something is wrong with our transparency and accountability procedures, it is obvious. But more than that the budgets are not designed yet, the documents are still to go in after all that time and our president getting angry with the Norwegian prime minister …”
Ramjattan also noted the government’s reduction of the corporation taxes from 45% to 40% for commercial companies and from 35% to 30% for non-commercial entities while the telecommunication companies will continue to pay 45%, a move he labelled as vindictive.
“What was the rationale behind that? I am indicating to you, if you want IT to be the basis of your takeoff as you talk so much about IT and you have the telephone companies being largely that which [launch] such a takeoff, why did you not give the telephone companies that extra 5% so that they can take off?” he queried rhetorically.
According to Ramjattan, the reason could very well be that the government would soon be competing directly against GT&T. His remark was a reference to government’s plans to launch a fibre optic cable to provide internet connectivity for e-governance and other services with infrastructure work already underway.
On a heckler’s comment that the Private Sector Commission had endorsed the corporate tax reduction, Ramjattan said the body was saying whatever it took to satisfy the government.
“There is a fear about them … they will come here and say it is wonderful but do you really believe that they are accepting that, they’re not. Very many who have spoken to me, have indicated that that is absolutely not the way to go, lots more ought to be done,” Ramjattan said.
He called on the administration to have a level playing field for investors.
Farmers suffering
Earlier in the debate PNCR parliamentarian from Region 5 Jennifer Wade highlighted the plight of her region particularly that of farmers.
“Farmers continue to suffer severely, during the rainy seasons the situation worsens. There must be some comprehensive drainage plan to address flooding that will take into account existing and support development expressly south of the main canal and also the continuation of the phase two of MMA-ADA Scheme which is long overdue.”
Touching on sea and river defence, Wade said the region needed proper sea wall structures since the boulders placed in punts could not prevent the sea from getting inland.
“The residents of Number 37, Kingelly and Brahn and those at Ross and Yeovil where I am living are very much fearful as the sea continues to create breaches; there’s need for urgent corrective measures, it is unsafe and frightening.”
Meanwhile, Wade said a comprehensive housing plan was needed in the region while pointing out that the police housing facilities at Fort Wellington were in a deplorable state. The officers, she said, were now occupying houses for the health workers and those legitimate beneficiaries are without accommodation. Teachers and nurses too, she added, were without housing facilities. Wade also called for generators at the pumping stations as she said that power outages usually resulted in no water to communities. The MP also used the opportunity to call for an ambulance for the Fort Wellington Hospital while stating that the operating theatre at the Mahaicony Diagnostic Centre was without equipment.
