Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh said government welcomed and was pleased at Thursday’s rulings by Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman in Parliament.
“The Speaker found that the Assembly could proceed and ruled that the Assembly should proceed with Financial Paper 8/2011. That in of itself was also an important and significant ruling. The government welcomed and is pleased at the Speaker’s findings in favour of the merits of our argument on this matter,” he said, speaking at a press conference held at the Office of the President on Friday. With him at the press conference were Prime Minister Sam Hinds and Adviser on Governance Gail Teixeira.
“It is significant to note that notwithstanding the Speaker’s ruling, another attempt was made on the floor to stymie the consideration of Financial Paper No 8/2011,” Dr Singh said, adding that government then rejected this attempt.
“Mr Greenidge’s attempt to frustrate Financial Paper No 8/2011 was out of order,” Singh said. “That Financial Paper was passed in its entirety, an outcome that we regard as favourable,” he said.
He said that notwithstanding the Speaker’s ruling and the government’s repeated affirmation that it is available and willing to answer any questions they might have, “It is significant to note that the opposition parties in Parliament did not see it fit to give the items under consideration their support.
“The AFC withheld their vote and the APNU voted against it,” he said.
He said the Assembly has a tradition of unanimously supporting financial papers covering foreign inflows into the country in the manner of Financial Paper 8. “These are disbursements that have been made. This is an administrative requirement to ensure that the additional disbursements are recorded,” he said.
“The government would wish to register its disappointment at the opposition’s withholding its support for Financial Paper No 8/2011,” he said.
The minister said it is significant that the Assembly approved the overall majority of the items in Financial Paper No 7/2011 relating to the Contingencies Fund.
“Whilst we believe that the approval of Financial Paper No 8/2011 and the approval of the majority of items in Financial Paper No 7, the approval of the Supplementary Appropria-tions Bill represents a step forward. We believe that there is sufficient cause for concern that the opposition did not see it fit to vote on the items before us based on their merits,” he said. “One would have hoped that in the current political configuration in the Parliament that the opposition would have seen the benefits and advantages of taking an objective position and voting on items based on merit,” he said.
“As a government we will continue to work for the development of our country. We will not let the task of development be slowed in any way. We repeat our call to the opposition to join us in this effort,” he said.
Singh said the consideration of the two financial papers was a very routine matter, one that should not have attracted any level of disagreement in the Assembly and should have not had the outcome it did.
He said that during the course of consideration of the papers, members of the opposition made several attempts to frustrate the approval of the papers by advancing frivolous arguments.
