Of the $7.5 billion in supplementary funding for which it is currently seeking parliamentary approval, government has earmarked $2.451 billion or a little more than 30% for the completion of severance payments to laid-off sugar workers.
As of May this year, planned government spending stood at over $271 billion, comprising the $267 billion national budget and supplementary provisions of $1.931 billion and $2.5 billion.
On Thursday, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan laid a third financial paper in the National Assembly to request a total of $7,584,274,488 in supplementary provisions for a variety of expenditures.
This request for the sum to cover severance represented one of three requests for the Ministry of Agriculture and one of more than 30 requests under the Current Estimates detailed in the paper.
The requests under Current Expenditures carry a total value of in excess of $3.904 billion, while there are also 25 requests under Capital Expenditures totalling $1.873 billion and requests from two Constitutional Agencies totalling more than $194.851 billion.
The House had previously approved $1.931 billion for severance payments, which along with $500 million that had been allocated in the 2018 national budget facilitated a total payout of $2.431 billion in January.
At that time, Jordan had said that this sum would facilitate full severance by the end of January for a little more than 1,600 of the 4,763 sugar workers that had been made redundant by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) as part of its restructuring programme. This represented those sent home by GuySuCo who were entitled to severance payouts of $500,000 or less. The other workers received 50% of their severance, with a promise that the remaining sums would be paid in the second half of the year.
The approval of the latest request would put the severance paid out to GuySuCo workers at a total of $4.882 billion. These sums, however, do not include the severance for 351 workers from the Wales Estate, who had taken their case for payments to court.
Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder has indicated that a total of 4,763 sugar workers have been severed. Of that number, 1,851 are from the Skeldon Estate, 1,181 from the Rose Hall Estate, 1,480 from the East Demerara Estate and 251 from the Wales Estate.
The restructuring of GuySuCo has cost the government in excess of $6 billion this year alone as it has not only made severance payments but has also had to increase allocations to the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to cover expenditures in line with its increased drainage and irrigation responsibilities.
Holder previously explained that NDIA has assumed responsibility for additional drainage pump stations, the maintenance of 4, 560 additional miles of drainage and irrigation canals along with 1,000 miles of access dams and 760 bridges and more than 14,000 airfield structures.
A $600 million allocation was sought and approved in May and an additional $600 million is now being requested.
Included in this sum is $350 million to cover expenditure for drainage and irrigation work previously performed by GuySuCo, and $250 million for increased expenses incurred by the NDIA.
“The authority has also increased operational and maintenance cost of machinery and equipment due to extensive and unplanned works resulting from the prolonged rainy season and 10 additional pieces of machinery as a result of the court decision relative to the NDIA vs GUYTRAC,” the remarks attached to the request explains.
In total, Jordan is seeking $3.05 billion for the Ministry of Agriculture.
Security costs
Meanwhile, over 20 requests have been made for sums totalling in excess of $600 million to facilitate an increase in the cost of 24-hour security services for various government properties across the 10 Administrative Regions.
Attached to a request for $171.554 million in Region Three is the explanation that rates for security services in the region have increased from $300 per hour to $330 per hour plus Value Added Tax (VAT) from Monday to Saturday, and $495 per hour plus VAT on Sundays and holidays. The sums sought are expected to cover these increased charges for 118 schools over the period October to December, 2018.
Similarly, security for the 41 health facilities in that region are set to cost government an additional $27.401 million, with additional charges for armed guards being pegged at $430 per hour plus VAT from Monday to Saturday and $645 per hour on Sundays and holidays.
Region Four is also requesting an additional $156.447 million to cover security services in its 134 Schools and $ 21.117 million to cover 31 health facilities. The charges in this region have increased from $300 an hour to $377 an hour plus VAT.
Regions Five, Six, Nine and Ten have also made similar requests for education and health facilities as well as public infrastructure facilities in
some cases.
Other agencies for which supplemental provisions are being sought include the Ministry of Presidency, for which $95 million is requested to host Commonwealth events over the next week under its Public Service Management Programme.
According to the Financial Paper, the hosting of the 12th Biennial Conference of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) is set to cost Guyana $83.25 million, while the Commonwealth Ministerial Conference will cost $11.25 million and the CAPAM International Invention Awards will cost $1.20 million.
The Ministry of the Presidency is also requesting $19.210 million to cover expenses incurred by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) in its response to various disasters as well as the provision of relief supplies to Venezuelan migrants.
The requests are expected to be scrutinised and voted on at the next sitting of the National Assembly.
