After hours of deliberations, the National Assembly last night approved almost $800 million in extra-budgetary spending including on 6000 solar panels to “green” State House and an army exercise aimed at testing the preparedness of the Guyana Defence Force which was done last year.
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan had tabled Financial Paper 3/2015 totalling $799 897 637 which covered extra government spending from September 1 to December 31 last year. The spending was approved at just about 8:30pm yesterday after opposition speakers’ pilloried government for resorting to the Contingencies Fund and questioning whether many of the expenditures were unforeseen and unavoidable. Government ministers were also criticised for being unable to provide answers on several matters.
The sitting of the National Assembly got off to a late start and as House Speaker Barton Scotland moved to have Parliament’s Committee of Supply consider the financial paper, PPP/C parliamentarian Irfaan Ali rose to object saying that the motion flies in the face of provisions of the Constitution and the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act. He also cited a ruling by former Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman regarding supplementary provisions.
Ali declared that they are dealing with supplementary provisions for 2015 that has been brought to the House in 2016 “but more importantly after we have approved a budget for 2016.” He pointed to Articles 219 and 220 of the Constitution.
“Both Articles 219(3) and 220 (2) states that per statement of expenditure when Parliament has been dissolved and where advances have been issued from the Contingencies Fund and are required to be cleared by Supplementary Estimates, this should be laid in the National Assembly as soon as practicable,” he said.
“As soon as practicable here Mr Speaker, would have definitely be before the 2016 Budget if it’s a 2015 expenditure and a 2015 supplementary. We cannot say it was not practicable to lay it before 2016 when we brought out a 2016 budget,” he declared.
“In addition, it should be noted that Section 24(5) of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act states that ‘the Minister shall not, in any fiscal year, introduce more than five Supplementary Bills, except in circumstances of grave national emergency’,” Ali argued.
He emphasised that the Minister of Finance had enough time to bring the supplementary paper before the 2016 budget and “I cannot see how we can accommodate this supplementary at this time when we’ve already approved a 2016 estimate and now having to go back to 2015 supplementary. I can’t find a precedent of this anywhere in any jurisdiction. So I don’t know how we will proceed with this Mr Speaker,” he said while also citing a previous ruling by Trotman on a similar matter.
Suspended
After consultations with the Clerk, the Speaker suspended the sitting to examine the issue in more detail.
The sitting finally resumed at 3:45pm and Jordan said that based on advice and his training, he believes that the financial paper was brought as soon as practicable given the situation that obtained last year. He cited the late budget last year which was passed in August, the work to get a full 2016 budget, the number of sittings of the House between yesterday and May and what Parliament dealt with in those sittings.
“I can endeavour at this stage to say that in terms of accountability and so on, as we have been doing with the budget itself…that we can endeavour whenever we have these contingency…advances, to bring them earlier than May as it was first laid in this House,” he said.
After a brief exchange, consideration of the financial paper began. Among the sums for which government was seeking approval was $48.6 million for the installation of 6000 solar systems and the purchase of furniture and equipment for the Ministry of the Presidency and State House.
A number of PPP/C MPs sought answers on the solar panels including Chief Whip Gail Teixeira who questioned whether the items had been intended for indigenous communities but are now to be used differently.
Totally green
Minister of State Joseph Harmon said that the systems will be installed at State House and the Ministry of the Presidency. Installation has started at State House. He said that the intent is to make State House “totally green” to set the standard for the rest of the country. The bulk of the $48.6 million that the House was being asked to approve covers the costs of the solar systems, he said.
Teixeira questioned the 6000 figure for the two complexes. “It is rather imponderable actually,” she said, even as others questioned whether the expenditure was urgent and unforeseen.
Other issues raised included the $19 million for upgrading the Border Management System. Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix said that the equipment in question was required because it interfaced with equipment from international organisations and they upgraded their equipment and it was necessary to upgrade the equipment here so that it would be able to interface with their equipment. He did not identify the piece of equipment despite being pressed.
Under questioning from Clement Rohee, the former Minister of Home Affairs (now renamed to Ministry of Public Security), Felix said that it was a specialised piece of equipment which has to be single-sourced. He pointed out that it was the same source used when Rohee was minister and the source came to deal with government during the PPP/C’s tenure in office.
Rohee asked whether it was a “legal piece of equipment” even as some heckled “Ramsammy type.” Felix said that he was carrying on from where the previous government left off.
He said that the equipment interfaces with the Border Management System and it is now operational and the $19 million represents the final payment for the system.
The PPP/C parliamentarians, a number of times, questioned whether the expenditures on various items were urgent and unavoidable and chided the government side for the supplementary spending when it could have been included in the budget. The also criticised some ministers for being unable to provide answers and questioned why they had not brought along their technical people.
However, government MPs pointed out that some of the expenditure related to debts incurred under the PPP/C government.
Among the expenditures for which government sought approval was $410 million for last October’s ‘Exercise Greenheart,’ which was aimed at testing the preparedness of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), $49 million used to assist coconut farmers faced by the Red Palm Mite infestation, $13.6 million for the Prison Service to offset the shortfall due to increased prices for items such as milk, meat and vegetables, and $11 million for the Prime Minister’s Secretariat to offset partial liabilities to the Guyana National Newspapers Limited which was incurred by the Government Information Agency.
The Prime Minister said that it was necessary to pay the tranche owed by GINA to GNNL to keep the Guyana Chronicle viable and prevent its collapse. He said the indebtedness of GINA to other entities has not been fully disclosed as more entities are coming forward.
