Four financial provisions voted down by the Opposition two months ago because of the lack of details were presented again to the National Assembly on Thursday.
Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh tabled Financial Paper 9/2011 which totals $79.6 million and covers two current and two capital estimates for the period October 25, 2011 to December 31, 2011. They were originally included on Financial Paper 7/2011 but were voted against by the combined opposition citing a lack of transparency.
The current estimates comprise a $25.5 million allocation to the Office of the President for the hosting of the national awards ceremony and other events of the state, including the swearing-in of President Donald Ramotar and other members of his Cabinet, and an amount of $6.5 million to the Ministry of Home Affairs as payment for staff of the General Register Office for working overtime during the claims and objections period for elections.
On the capital side, the two allocations for which the Government is now seeking approval are an amount of $18.4 million for the provision of security equipment to the Office of the President and $29.1 million for land preparation for the Specialty Hospital that the Indian government is financing.
Some weeks ago, Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman had said that the Finance Minister was free to return the items to the National Assembly at a later time. In the February sitting, the APNU and AFC also caused Financial Paper 8/2011 to be withdrawn and the government brought it back to the House on March 15 and at that sitting, the AFC abstained from voting and that paper was approved.
With regards to Financial Paper 8/2011, the Opposition said that the legend for the items was not detailed enough and they wanted more transparency on how the money was spent. They said the five word description in the legend was insufficient information for such large expenditures and that this constituted a breach of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act. That financial paper had a total of $3.471 billion in monies sought for foreign funded projects – the electrification programme, the East Bank Highway Improvement, the acquisition of ferries, and the Education for All Fast Track Initiative education project.
