The opposition PPP/C has promised a “hot” budget debate next week and several of its shadow ministers yesterday criticised aspects of the APNU+AFC government’s “taxation” budget charging that it is not for the ordinary man.
“Clearly, the budget is a taxation budget,” PPP/C Chief Whip Gail Teixeira said at a media briefing at PPP headquarters Freedom House yesterday. She said the budget debate next week will be a “hot” one and highlighted several areas of concern.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan presented a $230 billion budget last Friday and debate in the National Assembly on it is scheduled to begin on Monday.
In relation to parliamentary procedure for the budget debate, Teixeira predicted that there will be issues in relation to speaking time for parliamentarians, the position at which the Leader of the Opposition will speak and whether they will be “tortured again” with only three days for the consideration of estimates.
She also highlighted that since the last budget, ministers had promised to provide answers that they could not supply at the time but very few have done so and these were “frugal” and some were non-compliant. According to Teixeira, the Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan has not provided any answers.
Meantime, shadow Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony said despite the $6.5 billion allocated in this year’s budget for the procurement of drugs and other consumable medical supplies, he believes that the country will continue to experience drug shortages because a number of steps that guide the process are missing. He noted that the country is currently facing a drug shortage as well as a shortage of reagents used for lab testing.
“The health system is really in a crisis,” he said. Anthony pointed out that the responsibility for drug procurement now rests with the regions rather than central government and said that last year, over $600 million was sent back by the regions because they were unable to procure drugs.
For this year, he pointed out that $3 billion from the $6.5 billion is going for drug procurement for the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) with $2 billion going to the ten regions, which, he said, is not enough. According to Anthony, when broken down, it amounts to $3000 spent per person. He said that under the PPP/C administration there was a formulary or list of drugs that was procured and questioned whether there is now such a list for the national and regional levels.
Anthony also expressed concern about the allocation in the budget to tackle suicide. In his budget presentation, Jordan had said that government has decided to immediately mount a commission of inquiry (COI) and develop an emergency suicide prevention plan of action.
However, Anthony said that under the PPP/C administration, experts had already devised a plan to tackle suicide which the APNU+AFC government has tweaked but there is no budget for the plan. “Monies have not been allocated to fund measures that the experts came up with,” he declared.
In terms of maternal health, he said government had not completed its pledge in the 2015 budget for a maternity ward at the GPH and it is listed as a “flagship” programme in this year’s budget. He also said that Minister of Health Dr George Norton had previously spoken of the need for an additional 700 midwives and Anthony yesterday questioned how much has been invested in training. According to Anthony, he doubts that much has been done and judging by the allocation in the 2016 budget, not much will happen this year.
The former PPP/C minister also asserted that in terms of major health issues such as diabetes and hypertension, not much is being done. The budget will not help ordinary people, Anthony declared.
Shadow Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, meanwhile, accused the coalition government of being “totally clueless” about the needs of Guyanese children and expressed “grave concern” about the capacity of the administration to implement programmes.
The former education minister questioned the whereabouts of the promised COI into education and said the government has no plans but is instead following what the PPP/C had started.
Manickchand highlighted that thousands of children did not receive provisions for uniforms last year as well as core textbooks for Math and English. She also questioned whether the distribution of the “grotesquely ugly” expandable shoes is replacing the uniforms programme and whether government has funded this initiative.
Further, Manickchand said, the ‘Three B’s’ initiative is “craftily” being sold to the nation as being funded by the government and she questioned how much money has been spent by the administration on the initiative so far. She highlighted several issues with regards to the initiative such as the two buses placed at Region Five being unable to serve the entire area and a bus provided by the previous administration that used to provide similar services to Mahaicony students being out of service for months and no effort being made to fix it.
Manickchand also condemned what she termed the politicising of services for children and identified the painting of buses and boats to be used for student transportation in APNU+AFC’s colours of green and yellow as an example. “It is offensive,” Manickchand declared and called for this to be halted.
Shadow Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs, Pauline Sukhai also said that there is no new initiative in the budget for the indigenous peoples. She questioned the ability of the ministry to implement projects.
Shadow Minister of Social Protection Dr Vindhya Persaud said there was minimal mention of women in the budget and no programmes such as the Women of Worth entrepreneurship programme. She questioned where employment is going to come from.
Persaud also highlighted that for the Child Protection Agency, its branches are seriously short-staffed and there is one social worker assigned to about six shelters in Berbice. She also questioned what is being done about alcohol abuse and addiction in the country.
According to Persaud, the budget is lacking in every possible way and more emphasis should have been placed on reducing the financial burden ordinary people face on a daily basis. The budget is not for the ordinary man, she declared.
