Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira said yesterday that the next meeting of the Tripartite plenary will be next week Tuesday as the parties continue to try to find common ground in the wake of bitter sentiments across the floor surrounding the Opposition’s latest exercise of parliamentary control in burying for good financial paper 9/2011.
Despite this action on the part of the combined Opposition, the Government said it was committed to continuing along the path of dialogue, which commenced at the beginning of the year.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Khemraj Ramjattan of the Alliance For Change said that he will do his best to be at the meeting on June 26 and he hopes to raise issues such as NICIL, Local Government Elections and the latest court action that the Attorney General has brought against the budget cuts.
“We would like to be back in the talks,” said Ramjattan, recalling that the AFC was shut out of the last meeting when there was a mix up in the confirmation of that meeting.
Regarding the recent vote against Financial Paper 9, the AFC parliamentarian said that the party must remain true to its position about not entertaining additional spending in the absence of proper explanation. “If there is no explanation we will hold to our position. We will not flip flop or we will look hypocritical and unprincipled,” he said.
He added that there must be a change in circumstances for the AFC to support the financial paper.
Minister of Finance, Ashni Singh speaking last week Wednesday during the break in the sitting of the National Assembly reiterated the Government’s commitment to the ongoing dialogue process.
“I have always said that the PPP/C is a civic alliance, is always willing to speak and to engage and that does not change.
Our disposition towards dialogue is an unshakeable disposition.
We will always remain willing and available to speak, but it does say something about whether those sitting on the other side could be relied upon to hold to their commitments,” he said.
The Minister said that the fact that the Opposition-dominated Parliament approved an overwhelming majority of the financial paper when it came in its first incarnation as Financial Paper 7/2011 speaks volumes about the National Assembly.
“The Contingencies Fund is almost entirely replenished [since most of the items on the financial papers have been approved.
Only $79 million out of the list of items that have been submitted [were left out]. But it does leave these four items [of expenditure] in abeyance and we have to look at the administrative implications of that,” said the Minister.
