A date for the budget cuts appeal could be soon set as records submitted for the case are being indexed.
Attorney Khemraj Ramjattan, who filed the appeal on behalf of Speaker Raphael Trotman, made this disclosure on Thursday.
Contacted on the case, which has been before the Court of Appeal for almost a year, Ramjattan said he was contacted on Wednesday and he collected the seven copies of the records handed over to the court for indexing. He said he expected to complete this task by Monday or Tuesday of next week.
After all the copies have been indexed and the records returned to the court, the issue of a date can be addressed, a source said.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that it was only on Monday that the court received the final order from the High Court. It was explained that this order outlines the decision that the court had made in respect of the matter which is being appealed and this was causing the delay in a date being set.
Back in 2012, the parliamentary opposition APNU and the AFC, used their one-seat majority in the House to reduce the budgetary estimates by $21 billion. The opposition had cited a lack of transparency and accountability as explanations for the cuts to the allocations. The AG moved to the court in June of that year, asking for the cuts to be reversed and the monies restored.
In January last year, acting Chief Justice Ian Chang, in his final ruling, said the National Assembly acted “unlawfully and unconstitutionally” by effecting cuts to the 2012 budget estimates, after finding that its power is limited to either giving or withholding approval
Justice Chang held that while the National Assembly may approve or not approve the Finance Minister’s estimates of expenditure, it has no power to change them by either reducing or increasing them. “The power to amend may involve the power to approve. But a power to approve does not imply a power to amend,” he wrote in his decision.
Over the past few months, Ramjattan who is also an MP, has expressed concern at a date not being set in a timely manner. He blamed the current situation mainly on the shortage of court staff.
