Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
Questions on Marriott, NICIL…Opposition mulls sending Finance Minister before Privileges Committee
Parliamentary opposition has signaled its intentions to table a motion to send Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, before its Committee of Privileges, for alleged failures to provide information.
Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh
Several questions were reportedly posed to the Minister as far back as six months ago for information on the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), which handles government’s investments and privatisation transactions. Information was also being sought by the opposition parties on details of government’s sources of spending for a number of agencies which suffered budget cuts last year.
Kaieteur News was told that questions were also posed to the Minister on the controversial Marriott Hotel, currently under construction at Kingston.
According to opposition officials, a letter has since been sent to the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, who is now “actively” considering a request for permission to allow the motion.
Should the motion be allowed, it will have to be debated before more than likely being put to a vote.
The Committee of Privileges is the sanctioning body of the National Assembly which investigates complaints of wrongdoing by Members of Parliament.
The opposition, including both A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), have been locking horns with Dr. Singh and NICIL over spending, especially by the latter.
With a one-seat majority following the November 2011 General and Regional Elections, APNU and the AFC, which combined command 33 seats, have been paying more scrutiny to public spending.
Last year, the National Budget saw an unprecedented $20B being sliced off from a number of agencies and programmes. However, a court battle which ensued saw government using the ruling to restore some of the monies. The opposition has been arguing that the interpretation of that ruling does not give government the automatic right to delve into the national treasury to restore the budget cuts.
Several agencies, including the National Communications Network (NCN) and the Government Information Agency (GINA), were left without money last year because of the so-called budget cuts.
The opposition wanted to know where it was getting the money from to restore the cuts.
In the case of Marriott and NICIL, government’s decision to spend on a number of large projects without the oversight of the National Assembly, which has the final say in how taxpayers’ monies are spent, has been generating tensions in Parliament.
However, government has said that NICIL is a company governed under the Companies Act and as such does not have to be scrutinised by the National Assembly in its spending.
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