Main opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) yesterday accused government of using state-funded projects to campaign for votes in anticipation of upcoming elections—a charge that was later dismissed by Junior Minister of Finance Juan Edghill.
“The People’s Progres-sive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration has started its elections campaign with a massive spending spree of state funds. The squandermania is aimed unapologetically at winning votes from constituents and communities which the PPP/C has neglected for years,” Leader of APNU David Granger yesterday told a press conference.
Edghill told Stabroek News that Granger should show hard evidence that funds are being squandered and opined that the APNU leader’s “rants” are because he is scared of the PPP/C’s heightened presence in Linden.
“Let Mr Granger provide the evidence… I don’t see where there is squandermania. I see a man frightened of my presence in Region 10 but I want him to know no political party owns any region,” Edghill said.
Granger said the PPP/C’s only now executing projects in areas neglected for years was not because the government sincerely cares for the residents of those communities but because elections looms and it wants to garner political support.
He listed several projects to justify his party’s position that state funds are being used for electioneering and these included Edghill promising residents of Region 10 the reconstruction of the burnt One-Mile Primary School, the extension of the Upper Demerara Hospital, a heath centre at Christiansburg, a nurses’ hostel in Kwakwani, drainage, roads and other infrastructural projects. Further, he pointed out government signaled its intention to spend $200 million to repair the long dilapidated City Hall. “Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony, only this year on the approach of elections, seemed to realise that the celebrated 125-year-old Georgetown City Hall was in danger of collapse and needed major restoration,” Granger stated.
He also listed the $500 million ‘Clean up My Country’ programme as an election stratagem, pointing to Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker’s handing over of brush cutters to the Neighbourhood Demo-cratic Councils.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds’ One Laptop per Family distributions in Berbice and Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai’s presentation of ATVs in the hinterlands were also cited.
Edghill posited that the programmes mentioned had been catered for in this year’s budget estimates and approved by the opposition, of which Granger is leader. As a result, he said he was perplexed as to why they would be used to show squandering of state funds.
He said his interpretation of the accusations could only mean that Granger wanted to stymie development. “It is a fallacious statement about squander. Mr Granger don’t want the people to get what they deserve,” he stressed.
He also said APNU believes the recent equipping of the Police Force with riot gear and extensive training in crowd dispersal was another “election move” and intimidatory act by the PPP/C. Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee’s recent comments that he was preparing “for the fight that is looming on the horizon on the elections front” was taken as a threat by APNU.
Meanwhile, the distribution of the Ministry of Education’s $10,000 per child transportation grant was also strongly criticised by APNU Shadow Education Minister Amna Ally yesterday. She along with Granger questioned why nearly halfway into the new school term parents are yet to receive the monies. Ally said she believed the sloth in distribution of the grants was because the project was not aptly formulated and processed. For his part, Granger explained that the coalition would prefer to see the transportation needs of children met according to specifics, as logistics shows that what $10,000 can do for a child in urban communities can be exhausted before one week in other parts. As a result, he said that when APNU gets into power it will make necessary provision to have buses, boats or whatever transport needs best suits an area given to those communities to get value for dollar while tackling the school transportation problems faced by parents countrywide.
