Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh yesterday reiterated that a follow-up meeting with the parliamentary opposition on the 2013 budget is awaiting a date from APNU MP Carl Greenidge.
In a statement yesterday via the Government Information Agency, the minister was responding to a report in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek headed `Gov’t, opposition still to hold key budget meeting’ wherein it was stated that Greenidge had written Singh stating that the date set for the meeting was not suitable and offering to propose a suitable date and that the minister was “yet to finalise this”.
GINA said that “Minister Singh stated emphatically that to suggest that the meeting is held up because the Minister is yet to finalise ‘this’, whatever the ‘this’ refers to, is downright dishonest and a blatant attempt to mislead the public.”
Staboek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud in response said that the report had meant to convey that Singh had not been able to schedule the meeting because Greenidge had not gotten back to him. Persaud said the sentence should have been more clearly expressed and apologized to Singh for any inconvenience caused.
Singh restated the sequence of events in yesterday’s statement.
“The facts of the matter are as follows. The Minister of Finance wrote to the Opposition on 25 February inviting them to a follow-up meeting on 28 February. On the evening of 27 February, Mr. Greenidge called to indicate that he would be unable to attend the meeting on 28 February and asked if the meeting could be rescheduled to accommodate his availability.
The Minister agreed immediately to accommodate Mr. Greenidge’s request and asked Mr. Greenidge to inform him as soon as possible when he would be available. Mr. Greenidge undertook to do so. On 3 March, Mr. Greenidge wrote the Minister asking him for twelve additional copies of the information that Govern-ment had provided in preparation for the meeting. On 5 March, the Minister supplied the requested additional copies to Mr. Greenidge and reminded him that he was awaiting his advice on when he would be available for the follow-up meeting. On 6 March, Mr. Greenidge responded indicating that he will get back to the Minister. Since then, there has been no communication on the matter from Mr. Greenidge.”
