The opposition used its majority to approve a number of items of expenditure amounting to about $11 billion at Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly, where some proposed allocations previously axed from the national budget failed again to win approval over a lack of information about their necessity and unforeseen nature.
The National Assembly debated financial papers 1 and 2/2012 in the last session of the House before the parliamentary recess, which ends in October. The two financial papers sought clearance for allocations amounting to $12.169 billion.
The House passed a Supplementary Appropriation Bill covering the expenditure of the two financial papers but being amended accordingly to reflect the items that had been rejected.
Among those items the opposition spared were allocations for the purchase of a new generator for the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and the sum of $1 billion as part of the subsidy that had been rejected during the budget debates and an allocation under the Guyana REDD Investment Fund (GRIF) to fund projects such as the demarcation of Amerindian lands, to finance the Amerindian Development Fund, to fund adaptation projects such as the Cunha Canal and to provide for institutional strengthening. However, allocations for the Government Information Agency (GINA), National Communications Network (NCN), Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) and funds meant to finance the salaries of advisers working at the Office of the President (OP) were all rejected.
Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh was at pains to explain to the members of the opposition that the government had begun the process of implementing the recommendations of the Auditor General with the shifting of transfers from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Home Affairs for CANU. He was responding to Shadow Finance Minister Carl Greenidge.
The Minister said that the government was already in the process of transitioning CANU from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Home Affairs. During this time as the debate got contentious, Speaker Raphael Trotman intervened and sought to ensure that the opposition was clear about the answer that the Minister gave, in explanation of the expenditure sought.
Despite these entreaties, however, the opposition voted to reject the items.
Prime Minister Sam Hinds, in explaining the necessity of an allocation sought in the amount of $73.3 million as developmental, humanitarian and other activities, said sometimes people visit OP and may not have money to get home and this fund would be used to alleviate their plight. He said too that the money could also be used to build a bridge for a community which has such a need. Further, he said an allocation of $21.6 million would be used to assist with the purchase of kites for children and fund a number of funerals.
“This provision would enable the President to respond to these small calls,” said Hinds.
In the end, the opposition, not being convinced as to the necessity of the sums required, rejected them.
APNU MP Deborah Backer asked whether the expenditure for OP included the salary for Press and Publicity Officer Kwame McCoy. To this, Presidential Advisor and MP Gail Teixeira said that everyone has the right to earn and that McCoy’s rights must be respected.
Teixeira, in a novelty where government members asked questions of their ministers, asked whether persons eligible for old age pensions are receiving them at the increased rate of $10,000 per month to which Minister of Human Services and Social Security Jennifer Webster replied in the affirmative.
However, Greenidge asked when will the motion to bring the pension up to $15,000 per month be brought to the House and this Minister Singh rejected as an attempt at scoring “cheap political points” since the parties had all agreed on $10,000 a month.
AFC MP Moses Nagamootoo asked whether the payment of the pensions at the new rate will go back to January 2012, to which Webster said the payments were made from May 1, 2012. Nagamootoo said that government in its magnanimity could have made the payments retroactive to the beginning of the year.
With regard to the new $5.3 billion Wartsila generator for GPL, PPP/C MP Manzoor Nadir asked the Prime Minister what was the source of the funding for it. Hinds said that the funding came through Guyana’s account with Petrocaribe. He said that the country must resort to the account to make such an investment because GPL itself is short on capital. He said that the new power plant will be installed in Vreed-en-Hoop, near the new sub-station to be constructed there.
Nadir also asked Prime Minister Hinds if an allocation of $170 million has to do with the grant from the Chinese Government for the One Laptop per Family (OLPF) project. In response to this question, Hinds said that the money is for the implementation of Government’s ICT project, which includes making good on the OLPF and completing the fibre-optic cable. He called the cable an important backup for connectivity. “We should all be inclined to approve this money to benefit our people,” said Hinds.
Nadir asked the Prime Minister when the cable will be operational and how many jobs would it create. Hinds in response said that he held meetings with one of the largest call centre operations in Guyana and the principals told him that should the cable be operational, they could then expand operations from about 1,700 persons to about 5,000.
Supplementing Hinds’ response, Dr. Singh said that when the government has its own cable, then it would not need to purchase bandwidth. Hinds said too that the money will be for the provision of testing kits and standby power for the operation of the fibre-optic cable.
