The Government is working to have the long delayed Budget for 2020 presented, considered and passed on or before October 10th.
According to the Order Paper for Tues-day’s sitting, one of the first motions of the 12th Parliament at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre will see the facilitation of sittings during what is traditionally the “break period.”
A motion in the name of Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Government, Gail Teixeira, calls for the Assembly to suspend Standing Order 9 which provides that “unless there are special reasons…no sitting…shall be held between 10th August and 10th October in any year”.
Teixeira reminds that due to the dissolution of the 11th Parliament on December 30, 2019 there have been no sittings of the Assembly and therefore no Annual Budget has been presented or considered.
She also notes that government is desirous of commencing, as soon as possible, the work of the Assembly including the urgent presentation and consideration of the Budget Estimates on or before October 10.
Teixeira will also move a motion to amend the hours of the Assembly in keeping with the current COVID-19 curfew of 9 pm.
The Minister has applied to the Assembly for Standing Orders 10(1) and 10(2) to be suspended to enable the Assembly to sit during the hours of 10 am to 8 pm.
The Orders currently prescribe that a sitting will begin at 2 pm and end at 10 pm with a one-hour suspension at 4 pm and a half-hour suspension at 7 pm.
The new proposed hours of suspension are 12 pm and 4 pm for one hour each.
The Order Paper also states that the 2020 Budget proposals for 16 Constitutional Agencies will be circulated in preparation for their consideration and approval.
Following their approval in the House’s Committee of Supply they will be included in the national budget when it is presented and will be made law with the passage of the Appropriation Act.
Since 2016 the lump sum allocation for these agencies has been considered and passed separately from the regular budget in keeping with a 2015 amendment to the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) which granted these agencies financial autonomy. The House during the years 2016 to 2018 examined only the lump sum requested by the agencies and Finance Minister Winston Jordan’s recommendation.
It is expected that a mostly similar mechanism will be used since the Order Paper lists for circulation the recommendations and comments of the Minister of Finance in accordance with Section 3B(2).
The FMAA is meant to give effect to Article 222 A of the Constitution with regard to the annual budget appropriation for constitutional agencies with a view to giving them financial autonomy. It establishes the financial independence of the constitutional entities to specifically allow for lump sum payments to be made to them and to free them from the automatic obligations of budgetary agencies and the attendant discretionary powers exercised by the Minister of Finance.
The 16 agencies listed include Parliament Office which has submitted Current and Capital Estimates totalling $1,799,248,000, the Office of the Auditor General whose estimates total $908,636,000, the Public and Police Service Commissions $150,636,000 and the Teaching Service Commission which has requested $117,075,000
The Guyana Elections Commission has requested $4,943,052,000, the Supreme Court has budgeted for $2,443,164,000, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions has requested $226,822,000, the Office of the Ombudsman has asked for $70,001,000, the Public Service Appellate Tribunal has requested $40,911,000 and the Ethnic Relations Commission has requested $220,802,000
Additionally, the Judicial Service Commission has requested $10,020,000, the Indigenous Peoples’ Commission has applied for $24,392,000, the Human Rights Commission for $25,958,000, the Rights of the Child Commission for $46,095, 000, the Women and Gender Equality Commission for $58,327,000 and the Public Procurement Commission has requested $206,460,000.
The first order of business however will be the election of a Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The names of the possible nominees are not yet known as the both sides of the House have declined to make them public however traditionally the governing side of the House has named a Speaker while the opposition has named the deputy speaker. This held true for all Parliamentary sessions in post-independence history with the exception of the 10th Parliament when the combined opposition used its majority to install Raphael Trotman as Speaker.
