Constitution appears to give Govt. blank cheque

Jul 04, 2014 News

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…as Finance Minister justifies $4.5B spending, rules out illegalities

By Gary Eleazar
The Constitution of Guyana, the supreme law of the land, appears to have provided Government with a proverbial blank cheque for seemingly unlimited expenditure from the Consolidated Fund.

Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, recently tabled a Statement of Excess in Parliament documenting more than $4.5B that the Administration has already spent – allocations that had been voted down by the Opposition – prompting allegations of illegal spending.
Dr Singh yesterday hosted an engagement with the press where he provided excerpts of the relevant sections of the Constitution that authorize spending outside of the budget using the Consolidated Fund and legislative provisions allowing access to the Contingencies Fund.
The Minister, in justifying the legitimacy of the $4.5B expenditure, pointed to Article 218 (3B) of the Guyana Constitution which reads: “If in respect of any financial year it is found—that any moneys have been expended for any purpose in excess of the amount appropriated for that purpose by the Appropriation Act or for a purpose for which no amount has been appropriated by that Act, a supplementary estimate, or as the case may be, a statement of excess showing the sums required or spent shall be laid before the Assembly by the Minister responsible for finance or any other Minister designated by the President.”
This provision, Dr Singh said, has been in the Constitution ever since 1980, and further, a Statement of Excess is not unknown to the political opposition, since over the past two years they would have approved at least 58.9 per cent of the amounts on three Statements of Excess that he has tabled as a result of the various budget cuts.
The first was submitted in 2012 asking for $1.6B and the Opposition approved $1B of that amount, which was a bailout/subsidy to meet the cost of the fuel bill by Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL). The second Statement of Excess was also tabled in 2012 asking for $204M but this was also rejected. The last one was to the tune of $3.4B, and $2B found favour with the Opposition, $1.7B of which was again for the GPL.
According to Dr Singh, the fact that the Opposition approved 58.9 per cent of the $5.1B gives rise to their acceptance of the legitimacy of the Constitutional Provision allowing the expenditure by the Finance Minister from the Consolidated Fund.
Dr Singh was adamant that even if it was a case that only one item was approved, “the fact of the matter is that the Parliament recognized the instrument of a Statement of Excess and approved it, even if it is one item.”
Asked about the consequences of not getting the approval, and what would happen since the House did not approve $2.1B, his response was, “nothing.”
Dr Singh was also unable to give a definitive answer as to why from 1980 to present; there were only three Statement of Excesses voted on in the House, without research confirming that such was the case.
Asked what was the point of approving or disapproving of programmes in the Budget, if the Government is empowered under that clause of the Constitution to spend the monies anyway, Dr Singh responded by saying, “do not underestimate the value of Parliamentary scrutiny.”
According to the Minister, “the Parliament has an extremely important role to play in scrutinizing the operations of government at various points in the budgetary cycle.”
He said that this is not limited to the deliberations of the Estimates, Financial Papers, the Public Accounts Committee or Treasury Memoranda, but also at the level of Standing Sectoral Committees.
Dr Singh said whether the Opposition wanted to approve the financial paper or not, when it comes up for a vote, they must judge each of the items based on merit.
The political Opposition has already voted against and strongly voiced disapproval of expenditure incurred such as those for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Expansion Project, the Specialty Hospital, NCN and GINA, among others.
He reminded too that when the first allocation for the CJIA expansion was brought to the House it was approved, while recently, a provision for the Specialty Hospital was also approved.
What Dr Singh did not say is that subsequent to the initial approval of the CJIA Expansion, several revelations caused them to change their positions and called for full disclosure before there can be further support.
What Dr Singh also did not say is that on the occasion of the vote for the Specialty Hospital, one Member of the Opposition, Deborah Backer (now deceased) was out of the country for treatment while another, Volda Lawrence, fell ill at the time of the vote.
Asked what plans are in place should the Opposition decline to support the Statement of Excess currently before the House, Dr Singh reminded that the money has already been spent.
He said that should the House not approve of it, then he really wouldn’t be able to say what the consequences would be.
Reminded that there are monies from the three previous Statement of Excess that were not approved and asked to say what would happen, Dr Singh said “nothing.”
Asked if with the provision in place, Parliament is now merely a ‘rubber stamp,’ Dr Singh responded in the negative.

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