The opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has laid a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly against the APNU+AFC administration, which it says is damaging the country’s future prospects.
Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo told a press conference yesterday that the motion, in his name, calls for a declaration of no-confidence in the David Granger government.
“Clearly people are unhappy with the direction of the country; [with the] policies and practice of government…. Govern-ment has no vision. We are drifting, they have absolutely no plan for Guyana. They are using up our money on frivolous things, such as celebrations, food and rentals [and] they are borrowing a lot. They are damaging our prospects for the future,” Jagdeo said, while noting that the worse that can happen is that government uses its one-seat majority to defeat the motion.
Although unlikely as government has a majority, if the motion is passed it would trigger the holding of new general elections within 90 days.
“Whether we win the motion or not, the country will benefit because we believe we’ll get a chance once again to point out what the electorate said to them when they rejected them at these polls that their policies are all wrong and damaging our prospects for the future and the wellbeing of all our people across Guyana,” he stressed, while referring to the PPP/C’s showing at the just-concluded local government elections.
Jagdeo reminded that in 2014, the then opposition Alliance For Change (AFC), with support from A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), had brought a no-confidence motion against the Donald Ramotar-led PPP/C administration.
In an attempt to prevent the then opposition from using its one-seat majority to oust his government, Ramotar had prorogued Parliament in November, 2014. Under pressure, Parliament was eventually dissolved and general elections were held in May, 2015. It was these elections which ended the PPP/C’s 23 years of governance.
Jagdeo also reminded that in tabling the motion against the Ramotar administration, then opposition parliamentarian Moses Nagamootoo used several reasons to say that the opposition had lost confidence in government and it should not continue.
“They said, first of all, that government was spending too much money and so over the three years they cut 90 billion from the budget. Then they claimed that the Ramotar administration had illegally restored the budget for the Amerindian Development Fund, for hinterland airstrips, for One Laptop per Family and for School Vouchers. They filed a no-confidence motion against us because government decided to restore money they had cut from these programmes. They claimed that $4 billion given to GuySuCo was done in breach of procedures; not that the money was stolen but that they had procedurally made an error and should not have given the $4 billion to GuySuCo. They claimed money was illegally held in semi-autonomous agencies, like GGMC and the Forestry Commission and those would be paid to the Consolidated Funds,” he said.
Jagdeo went on to say that since the APNU+AFC government took office, 30,000 jobs have been lost and the entire sugar industry has been decimated, with some “7,000” workers losing their jobs and many of them still to find other employment.
“They came into office on a promise of clearing up corruption, arguing that the airport was corrupt, the Marriott (Hotel project) was corrupt, and the Amaila Falls. We have seen this government in office unable to prove any of this but, on the other hand, from the audit report, $500 million is missing from the D‘Urban Park project. The Public Procurement Commission ruled that this government has illegally awarded a contract for $605 million for drug purchases. The Public Procurement has released a report saying that Patterson and his ministry bypassed the tender process and illegally approved a contract for the Demerara Harbour Bridge worth $150 million… the same government that argued that monies should be paid from the semi-autonomous agencies and transferred to the coffers, because it was held illegally there, decided to secretly keep the US$18 million that they received from ExxonMobil as a signing bonus,” he further said, while noting that it was later revealed that the Central Bank had been directed not to pay this bonus into the Consolidated Fund.
Jagdeo stressed that these proven transgressions are much more than those unproven ones which drove the 2014 motion.
He noted that even if the motion were defeated, it might convince government to clean up its act.
“We are asking for a budget which restores water and electricity subsidy to pensioners, restores the $10,000 grant to school kids, restores the bonus to the disciplined services, honours the commitment to public servants, removes VAT from utilities, medical supplies and services and food items. We want the land and water charges at Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary-Agriculture Develop-ment Authority reduced, reduction of excise tax on fuel, restoration of 2% final tax for miners, reversal of the increases of water rates, reversal of University of Guyana fees and to move forward the process of constitutional reform,” he further said.
