The National Assembly yesterday approved a $10 billion supplementary allocation to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) for flood relief including repairs to infrastructure and for supporting recovery in the productive and household sectors.
The sum which has been added to the current allocation for Disaster Pre-paredness, Response and Management is expected to be utilized by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) for the provisions of hampers, the establishment and maintenance of shelters and the emergency rehabilitation of key roads and bridges.
It however remains unclear just how much is being allocated for any one of these activities.
Repeated requests from members of the opposition for Prime Minister Mark Phillips to disaggregate the emergency funds were sidestepped.
“There is no disaggregation at present since the assessment is not completed…We are currently in the relief phase and planning for recovery. This expenditure will cover food hampers, repairs to roads and drainage and irrigation,” Phillips told the House.
Asked to provide estimates of what percentage of the $10 billion will be used for any of these areas, Phillips said the assessment was still being done by the CDC.
According to PM Phillips there are 30,000 households affected by flooding across the country. He explained that as of yesterday the CDC has distributed 21,935 food hampers and 18,654 cleaning hampers but again could not say how many hampers are provided for in the $10 billion allocation.
“Let’s not get into the weeds,” he said when asked for details. .
Noting that the Ministry of Public Works has also approached the House for funds, APNU+AFC Parliamentarian Annette Ferguson asked Phillips to explain what infrastructure works will be funded by this allocation.
“How did you arrive at the sum of $10 billion?” she asked to which the PM responded that the PPP/C government as a responsible government had approached the house for $10 billion as an initial sum.
He explained that once the CDC has concluded its damage and needs assessment it will be laid over in the House, in the interim all works are an emergency.
“We have to do this right away. Bridges and roads must be repaired,” Phillips responded, though he did not name any of the roads or bridges which would be part of these emergency repairs.
The allocation for OPM was part of a $23 billion supplementary allocation approved by the assembly without amendment.
The allocation included a $13.6 billion increase in current spending and $9.6 billion in Capital Spending.
While funds for flood relief represent the largest current expense, a $1.5 billion allocation to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) represented the largest capital expense.
According to the explanation provided this sum represents continued sup-port for the restructuring of the sugar industry.
Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha told the House that the $2 billion allocated to GuySuCo in the 2021 Budget is “almost exhausted” with only 40% of the sector restructured. He added that the extra sums are required for the government to uphold its promise to reopen the estates closed under the APNU+AFC government.
In providing a disaggregation of the sum to be expected, Mustapha listed a series of equipment including long-reach excavators which will be purchased for each estate.
Skeldon and Enmore will each receive $40 million for the purchase of these excavators while Rose Hall will receive $292 million for the purchase of a long-reach excavator as well as a 200 horsepower tillage excavator, various ploughs and 100 cane punts among other pieces of equipment.
At Albion $718 million will be spent on a long-range excavator, drones, an aluminium boat, cane tug, tractor as well as material for road repairs among others. Similar expenditures at Blairmont will reach $149 million and $259 million at Uitvlugt.
