Attorney General Anil Nandlall has rejected claims from APNU+AFC MP Roysdale Forde that a Statement of Excess for monies spent since the dissolution of Parliament last year should have already been tabled in the National Assembly.
In a statement on Tuesday, Nandlall said that this statement will be tabled with the 2020 Appropriation Bill tomorrow.
The main parliamentary opposition has objected to the consideration of the Budget Estimates until such time as the sum previously expended by them over eight months is made clear to the National Assembly.
In response Nandall has stated that these sums will be made clear before the passage of the Appropriation Bill tomorrow.
Forde on Monday argued that since no Minister has laid before the House a Statement of the Expenditure authorized while the Assembly was not in session no appropriations could be considered.
He cited Article 219 (3) of the Constitution which says “Where at any time Parliament has been dissolved before any provision or any sufficient provision is made under this Title for the carrying on of the Government of Guyana, the Minister responsible for finance may authorize the withdrawal of such sums from the Consolidated Fund he or she may consider necessary for the purpose of meeting expenditure on the public services until the expiry of a period of three months commencing with the date on which the National Assembly first meets after that dissolution, but a statement of the expenditure so authorized shall, as soon as practicable be laid before the National Assembly by the Minister responsible for finance or any other Minister designated by the President and, when the statement has been approved by the Assembly, that expenditure shall be included, under the appropriate heads, in the next Appropriation Bill.”
It is only after this Statement of Excess has been approved that this expenditure is permitted to be included under the appropriate heads in the next Appropriation Bill, Forde said.
He urged Speaker Manzoor Nadir to require that this statement be provided before the estimates were considered.
“What we have is a situation where expenditure that has already been incurred are being presented as if they are to be spent,” he stressed.
In response Nandlall argued that there was an identical situation in 2015 when elections were held in May and the APNU+AFC Budget was presented in August.
“There was no Statement of Excess presented to this House to account for spending which took place in identical constitutional, political and factual circumstances as obtains now,” he stressed.
He went on to note that the consideration of the estimates is fundamentally for financial scrutiny which cannot be diverted by any technical interpretation of provisions.
“Let us err on the side of oversight and scrutiny,” he stressed, before arguing that the Statement cannot come to the House before the Appropriation Bill or be used to stymie scrutiny.
“It is simply procedural to mop up the accounting,” he said, while accusing the opposition of trying to prevent scrutiny of its spending.
Nadir deferred a ruling on the matter but allowed the consideration of estimates to proceed.
“This business is not concluded as yet. The Appropriation Bill is not slated to come until Friday so there is time for me to look at all the arguments and the law,” he said.
On Tuesday evening Forde released a public statement reiterating his argument and Nandlall in turn released a rebuttal.
The AG stressed that the “Statement of Excess” of all the monies spent up to the time of the Bill will be presented tomorrow.
“The Statement of Excess cannot come earlier because monies continue to be spent without appropriation, even during the budget debates and the consideration of the National Estimates,” he noted, explaining that if the Statement of Excess was to be laid at the beginning at the consideration of the National Estimates then monies spent during the consideration of the National Estimates, but before the Appropriation Bill is approved could not be accounted for.
The most practicable time for the Statement of Excess to be laid is with the Appropriation Bill, he concluded.
The Statement of Excess will come with the Appropriation Bill, in compliance with Article 219 (3) of the Constitution, he said.
Nandlall said he had confirmed the 2015 constitutional violation with the Clerk of the National Assembly, who produced the records, which showed a complete non-compliance with Article 219 (3) of the Constitution in 2015 via the failure to lay a Statement of Excess.
The issue of how much of the $329b budget was spent by the coalition government which held office until August 2, 2020 has assumed importance with former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan advising that it be clearly established how much has already been spent. During the eight months it held office in 2020 without a functioning parliament, APNU+AFC presented no accounting to the public for the monies they had spent on behalf of taxpayers.
During the Budget debate several speakers claimed that $160 billion has already been expended.
