The opposition will utilize the Economic Services Committee of Parliament as well as other means to scrutinize government spending and ensure that cuts are implemented and not funded through extra-budget sources, AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan said.
Last Thursday night, Budget 2012 was approved by the National Assembly minus $20.8 billion cut by the one-seat majority opposition comprising APNU and the AFC. Both parties signalled their willingness to approve at a later date the funds now being withheld, once government addresses concerns over the allocations. Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh had presented a budget of $192.5 billion.
One of the main concerns of the opposition is that billions of dollars are held in accounts not included in the budget and the government has used these extra-budgetary sources in the past to fund projects outside of the normal procedures.
Asked how the opposition will ensure that the cuts will be followed through, Ramjattan told the Sunday Stabroek yesterday that they will increase their scrutiny and will also ask the Auditor-General for special consideration to produce audited statements for those agencies. Should there be breaches, he said, they have also examined the possibility of filing criminal charges because it could be a breach of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act. Ramjattan said that they are also consulting with experts from Canada and have engaged the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank about the release of funds.
The Economic Services Committee of Parliament will also be much more active this year and will be calling for papers and documents and calling ministers to account, he said.
APNU leader David Granger said that it would be difficult to monitor and ensure the cuts are followed through given the sources of funds outside the budget such as the state holding company, NICIL and other agencies like the GGMC. However, he said that they would push for more oversight of these agencies and the funds they control.
Last Wednesday, the opposition voted to cut allocations for the National Communications Network (NCN) ($81.2 million), Government Information Agency (GINA) ($130.4 million), the Guyana Elections Commission ($527 million), Office of the President ($150 million, $345 million), and Office of the Prime Minister ($1 billion).
Then on Thursday, the opposition cut all but one dollar from an allocation of $18.39 billion covering a number of low carbon projects under the Ministry of Finance, namely, the Amaila Falls Project ($16.4 billion), Amer-indian land titling ($202.1 million), Amerin-dian Development Fund ($205 million), small and micro enterprise ($512.5 million), adaptation project – Cunha Canal ($410 million) and institutional strengthening of agencies connected to the LCDS ($615 million).
The opposition has argued that this allocation was expunged as there was no guarantee that the money would be released to Guyana by the World Bank which is managing the funds for the Norway forest deal. It has been argued that the government should have handled this allocation by way of a conditional appropriation.
