The Private Sector Commission (PSC) yesterday expressed deep concern at what it said was the obvious breakdown in communication between the government and the Opposition on the 2012 budget.
Against that background, the PSC contended in a statement yesterday that the failure to find consensus in the National Assembly on critical components of the National Budget “could ultimately result in destabilizing the country’s economic development and progress.”
The Commission said further that while it fully respects the right of all of the political parties in the National Assembly to represent and advocate the perceived interests of their respective political constituencies, it believes that the “current dispensation given to their representation in the Assembly places the additional responsibility upon them to accept the challenge of the electorate to conduct the business of the House in the interest of all of the people in sustaining the country’s wellbeing and continuing development and growth.”
In the meantime, the PSC reminded that in expressing its views it was “speaking as a major stakeholder on behalf of some 16 sectoral business organizations and 19 corporate members, representing some 5,000 members of the business and manufacturing community, both large and small, across the length and breadth of Guyana whose investment and enterprise drives and maintains the growth and development of our country.”
The PSC also pointed out that the expression of its position on the political process affecting the governance of the country is entirely consistent with the provisions of Article 13 of the Constitution which provides specifically for an inclusionary democracy in which all stakeholders and citizens participate in “the management and decision-making process of the State.”
