Government is moving to the courts over the budget cuts at the Office of the President which a senior government functionary says have crippled President Donald Ramotar’s ability to carry out certain functions.
Speaking yesterday at his post-Cabinet press conference held at the Office of the President, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon said the move to the court will be made “soon.”
A recent ruling by Chief Justice Ian Chang on the composition of the Parliamentary Committee of Selection upheld the principle of the separation of powers. The government has said that it will appeal this ruling.
Dr. Luncheon said that the reports submitted to Cabinet from the community outreaches that Cabinet members hosted in various communities countrywide show that the Opposition cuts have been widely deplored and condemned.
“At Office of the President, the cuts have placed a stranglehold on the provision of services for the President…who is the supreme authority of the land,” Dr. Luncheon said. “What the cuts have done is strip the President of advisory services,” he said, adding that those cuts have also affected the functioning of the advisor to the President on the Cabinet and on the Defence Board, the press and publicity advisor and the climate change advisor. “These cuts are on employment costs and on other charges. Over 122 staff and their jobs are on the line,” Dr. Luncheon said. He stated that the budget cuts related to OP were in the vicinity of $340 million.
He said too that access to financing to allow the President to discharge certain functions has been affected by the cuts and as a result, cultural and other events and the President’s constitutional obligations will be under threat. “Many of the projects that have started since the beginning of the President’s term of office on December 5, 2011 are in limbo,” he said, mentioning public facilities such as the Tipperary Hall in Buxton which is now stranded as far as completion is concerned.
“The situation is indefensible. There could be no contemplation that the Constitution at its highest or common sense at its lowest [that the Opposition would cause] such a dire situation,” he said. “Cabinet decided to have these matters judicially reviewed,” Dr. Luncheon said.
However, at an AFC press conference yesterday, party chairman Khemraj Ramjattan, reacting to the intention of the government to proceed to the courts on the budget cuts, said that it is the right of the Opposition to make cuts to the expenditure and added that the court move may suffer the same fate as the government’s move with regard to the composition of parliamentary committees. “Our vote in the Parliament is not illegal,” Ramjattan said, on government’s intended court challenge.
Dr. Luncheon said that with regard to the Opposition statements that the allocations could be restored through financial papers, the Opposition will have a chance to prove it means this at the next sitting, when Parliament would consider Financial Paper 9/2011. This financial paper brings back to the House those items that had been voted against in February. But Dr. Luncheon asked, “Why would you want to [do something] and then review it and change it in a few weeks.
