The joint opposition last evening voted to chop proposed budgetary allocations to the Office of the President by a whopping $345.
The motion to cut was in the name of APNU MP Carl Greenidge and saw the allocation for the Information and Communications Technology sector dropping from $6.75B to $6.58B. More cuts were also made to GINA and NCN under another heading. Allocations of $15M for GINA, NCN $65M and minor works at $95M were all reduced to a token $1 dollar each.
At this point, Speaker Raphael Trotman suggested a break for further consultations between the opposition and the government but Greenidge said they have already considered the cuts and they would go ahead with them.
Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill said that the cut to the information technology sector will affect the one laptop per family project and hurt Amerindian communities.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said that the one laptop project and the laying of the fibre optic cable by the government are generously supported from a important bilateral partner – China. He said it would send a dreadful message that China is willing to give $6B for the project and the House cannot approve $170 to be spent on it. He urged that the opposition abandon its “theatrical scissors” in order to see the completion of the project.
In response Greenidge posited that Singh spoke about the time the government spent in bilateral talks with China but found little time to talk with the opposition and only in the last week wanted discussions. He said the cut to the IT sector is not going to destroy the fibre optic cable project.
