AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan on Tuesday defended the opposition\u2019s scrutiny of the government\u2019s proposed budget as necessary to ensure public spending is beneficial to all. Addressing the National Assembly on the last day of the budget debate and ahead of the consideration of the budget estimates next week, Ramjattan stated that it was the place of all parliamentarians to take on an active role in the oversight of allocated monies while it is the still the responsibility of the Minister of Finance to deliver the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have every right to indicate where we feel money ought to be cut, [or that] money ought to be placed in other areas, so that we can have what we regard too as that which is beneficial to all and sundry in this state and in this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not as if we do not love the people of this country. If we were to say that the monies that are going from NICIL to a Marriott ought to go to a brand new permanent bridge across the Demerara River, what would have been wrong with that? And we are stating that at this stage it might be a better priority than a Marriott,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He said too that assisting the Private Sector was not out of line with the opposition\u2019s goals and noted that the opposition would lobby alongside the small businesses and entrepreneurs who continuously asked for a reduction in corporate tax. \u201cWhen it is too high a number of entrepreneurs and businessmen will start hiding,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
Ramjattan acknowledged that Guyana\u2019s deeply fragmented politics make consensus hard to come by but he nevertheless bemoaned the failure to set up the Public Procurement Commission. \u201cThe political leadership of the PPP\/C does not want to have the operationalising of a Public Procurement Commission,\u201d he said, while noting such a body would be objective and aimed at corruption reduction.<\/p>\n
He argued that the government\u2019s transition from the National Development Strategy to the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) saw increasing corruption. \u201cThere was a transformational shift of the President Jagdeo years\u2019 emphasis on the LCDS\u2014not an entirely bad strategy but it was the front by which there was a number of domestic localized policies and projects which were\u2026 riddled with corruption, nepotism, unaccountability and micromanaging,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This led to \u201cexecutive lawlessness,\u201d he added, and the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. He said the focus on the LCDS heralded \u201cemployment and educational schemes\u201d that failed to actually develop the \u201cskills people must have now to participate in our economy\u201d and did not bode well for the future. Prior to this shift, Ramjattan further stated, Guyana was on its way to the middle income bracket, which was reflective of the patterns in the Caribbean and Latin America.<\/p>\n
According to Ramjattan, Guyana\u2019s wealth and resources could be used to fund a \u201cstate development bank\u201d but he added that this was only possible if the Consolidated Fund was being pumped with reserves and those monies \u201cbrought to our attention in this honourable house for us to make the allocations.\u201d<\/p>\n
He earlier drew attention to \u201cpublic monies, huge sets of monies in certain bank accounts which the Auditor General had indicated clearly ought to be put into the Consolidated Fund and even huger sums in the [Guyana Geology and Mines Commission\u2019s] account, forestry\u2019s account and the Gold Board account\u2026 I had made the point and I want to emphasise it here: these monies need to be put in the Consolidated Fund because they are public monies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall stated that the government was actively updating and modernising systems that would aid in transparency and sectoral development. He noted that it was the opposition\u2019s intention to just slash and cut the budget without hearing the gains that were to be made, which he said was like a form of \u201cpolitical masturbation to these men.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Nandlall emphasised that based on the ruling of acting Chief Justice Ian Chang after last year\u2019s budget cuts, the opposition\u2019s grandstanding was in vain as it cannot legally cut the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis house is the premier law making institution of the land, this house has therefore the responsibility to ensure that the constitution of the country and the laws of the land are obeyed,\u201d he added, while noting that like with last year\u2019s budget, the courts may need to intervene.<\/p>\n
Although the opposition slashed last year\u2019s budget, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh later restored some of the allocations based on Chang\u2019s ruling. However, the opposition has contended that Singh has acted unlawfully as funds restored went beyond what was deemed permissible in the ruling.The court ruling was a preliminary one and the opposition parties say they are awaiting a final verdict in order to lodge an appeal.<\/p>\n
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AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan on Tuesday defended the opposition\u2019s scrutiny of the government\u2019s proposed budget as necessary to ensure public spending is beneficial to all. Addressing the National Assembly on the last day of the budget debate and ahead of the consideration of the budget estimates next week, Ramjattan stated that it was the place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latestnews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/image001-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-1aB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4503,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions\/4503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}