Attorney General Anil Nandlall yesterday announced an array of bills to be brought to the House this year including 25 in the health sector.
Delivering his contribution to the 2021 budget debate, he declared that the Legal Affairs Ministry will play a crucial role in the country’s developmental equation.
“Our major focus will be the creation of a modern legal infrastructure that will regulate new and emerging sectors, while at the same time revamp our archaic laws to complete a new and modern legal framework for Guyana. So every conceivable area of economic activity will be targeted for Legal reforms,” he told the House.
Notably while the Budget debates have been and continue to be a hotbed of tasteless heckling both Nandlall and the presenter before him, Roysdale Forde were subject to mild disturbances which in most cases consisted of drumming on desks and shouts of encouragement.
It served as a significant contrast to the presentations from Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony and Opposition member Catherine Hughes on whose behalf the Speaker found cause to intervene on several occasions.
Anthony as Health Minister was repeatedly heckled about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic while Hughes was criticized for allegedly authorizing contracts between her Ministry and a Public Relations Company which she founded.
Nandlall in his presentation restated that an international consultant will be retained to draft a compendium of legislation for the oil and gas sector while in the housing and hospitality sector a whole regime of legislation dealing with zoning, urban planning, condominiums and town houses will be drafted.
“In the health sector we have identified approximately 25 pieces of legislation which we will begin to work on including, a new Public Health Act, a new Mental Health Act, Organ Transplant legislation, a new Food and Drug Act and many more. In the agricultural sector, we will be enacting a Food Safety Act and a Food Security Act and other pieces of legislation that will (prepare) Guyana to export Agricultural products,” he stressed.
Speaking of the Hire Purchase Bill which was recently referred to a Select Committee of Parliament, Nandlall said it will be accompanied by an Anti-Dumping Bill, a Movable Property Security Bill and an E-Transactions Bill which are all currently in draft.
“This latter Bill is to prepare the public sector to engage in E-transactions and for payments to be made for government services by means other than cash and cheque,” he explained, adding that at the level of Local Government, the Solid Waste Management Bill will soon be completed and public consultations will be held in relation thereto.
Other legislation proposed include a Bill for the establishment of a Border Patrol Unit which will supplement the Guyana Police Force and Guyana Defence Force in securing and protecting the country’s borders.
“In the legal sector, a raft of legislation will be promulgated, including a new Arbitration Bill, a new Juvenile Justice Bill, a Bail Bill, Sentencing Guidelines, and of course a slew of Amendments will be done to our election laws, to make the electoral process more credible and transparent and to hold the staff of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to a higher standard of care,” he said.
NIS
Opposition Member of Parliament Forde meanwhile criticised Budget 2021 for its silence on the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) which has been suffering annual deficits.
As he opened the final day of Budget debates, Forde stressed that it was an historic Budget both for the nearly five hours it took Senior Minister Ashni Singh to present it to the House and for being the Budget with the largest deficit in the history of Guyana – some $106.651 Billion.
He argued that in 2021 Guyanese were being presented a budget which was eerily similar to the one presented 10 years ago in 2011.
At that time Singh had submitted a budget which had been described as anti-poor.
“The philosophy of the PPP Government is that by helping the rich we help the poor. The rich create the jobs and keep the industry and commerce going thus helping the poor,” one analyst had said of the 2011 budget, he noted. For Forde the 2021 measures espouse the same trickle down approach to the economic management of Guyana which is ordinary, flat and unimaginative.
“It fails to offer any prospects of an equitable economic and social transformation of Guyana which is so needed and desired by the people of Guyana. This failure renders Budget 2021 irrational, insipid and insensitive,” he stressed.
In an attempt to illustrate government prioritizing of the private sector over the social sector, Forde explained that while all the measures requested by the private sector were granted the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) was not so lucky.
The GTUC he said had asked for a reduction in national borrowing; a reduction in concessions given to the private sector, the erasure of the deficit of the National Insurance Scheme and the immediate restoration of the constitutional right to free education at the tertiary level none of which was granted.
The precarious nature of the NIS was actually recognized in the budget presentation when Singh reminded the House that successive actuarial studies have highlighted the need for significant reforms to address issues related to the viability of the Scheme.
“Many of these reforms require serious review and consideration,” he said, adding that in 2021, Government will undertake a comprehensive assessment of these recommendations to determine the way forward. There was no mention of a possible bailout of the scheme.
For Forde this oversight is particularly egregious since it was the PPP/C investment of NIS funds which destabilized the scheme.
“The Senior Minister was the Chairman of the Co-operative Finance Administration, which had to approve Investments made by the NIS and did approve the investment of $6 Billion in Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO)…he permitted the (withdrawal of money from) the NIS (and) that investment failed, leaving the beneficiaries of NIS suffering terribly,” Forde reminded, adding that the NIS is now of little importance, low priority and of little use to the governing party.
He contrasted this silence with the actions of the former APNU+AFC administration which signed a Debenture Agreement of over $5.6B to repay the NIS for losses suffered when CLICO collapsed.
Moving on to the proposed legislative agenda for 2021, the opposition MP charged that the Budget has no substance on the issues of Constitutional Reform and Governance.
“It is clear that there is no commitment to Constitutional reform,” he proclaimed, adding that no meaningful progress is likely in the Criminal Justice System either.
