Responding to criticisms that the opposition needs to do more than pass motions which are non-binding on the government, Greenidge said that a motion is a strong statement that the government is breaking the law and must correct this situation. On Monday the House carried a resolution to compel the government to halt monies for the Marriott project until those monies are approved by the National Assembly.
“If the government does not follow the resolution, we could take action against the subject minister,” said Greenidge. He said that the Minister could be sanctioned, and that the strongest of these would be expulsion from the House. “Right now we have a number of ministers who have failed to implement resolutions of the House,” he said.
“There are things [at our disposal] that we could do if they don’t take action [in accordance with the resolution],” he said, noting that the opposition could seek to amend the law to take the Public Service Commission and Judicial Service Commission off the schedule of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act so that they could become more independent and the Finance Secretary would no longer have control over them through the allocations. “The House will pass such legislation…we will do it,” he said.
In an interview with this newspaper yesterday, Greenidge said, “A motion raises awareness of the public. The public should have a fuller understanding that a motion points to the fact that the government has breached the law. It should not take much more than that to compel the government to act.”
Greenidge made reference to his motion passed some months ago resolving that the government make arrangements to turn over all monies of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to the Consolidated Fund.
The motion passed in June this year asked that the National Assembly require the Minister of Finance to lay before it a report on all the extra-budgetary agencies, including the Lottery Company and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, all the outstanding reports and quarterly audited accounts as required by the law.
It also asked that the relevant minister/s ensure that all agencies authorised to have extra-budgetary funds under the Act and with outstanding reports as at 14 February, 2012, be immediately required to pay into the Consolidated Fund all balances held in their accounts and a statement of such payments be submitted to the National Assembly on or before 30 June, 2012.
In anticipation of the motion, the government tabled all of the outstanding reports of NICIL prior to the eventual debate on the same motion calling for those reports to be tabled. “They now scramble to submit those annual reports,” Greenidge said.
During that earlier debate, Greenidge argued that the FMAA and the constitution require that the monies collected on behalf of the state must be handed over to the Consolidated Fund. He noted then that the aim of the motion was “to see that the executive adheres to the law.”
