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