House approves extra US$25 Million

Dec 11, 2009 News

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– Opposition unhappy with vague explanations

By Gary Eleazar
Amidst accusations of vague answers and downright evasion and dishonesty, leveled at Government Ministers by opposition members, the Financial Papers Three and Four to approve the expenditure of some $US25M in additional expenditure from the nation’s coffers were approved by the House.
Shadow Finance Minister and Member of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Winston Murray was first out of the blocks as the House resolved into committee to consider the appropriations clause by clause and the opening item on the agenda was an additional provision of some $50M for the Climate Change Unit of the Office of the President on top of an earlier $13.6M.
Murray first sought to ascertain from the relevant Minister when this office was established and how exactly the money would have been spent.
According to Junior Finance Minister Jennifer Webster, the unit was set up in June of this year and the money was to meet administrative costs as it relates to the hosting of consultations for the Low Carbon Development Strategy as well as the printing of the document.
Murray then sought to ascertain the emoluments of the staff of the unit and the Minister notified that the unit was staffed by personnel that were seconded from different departments and various government agencies.
She however was unable, much to the displeasure of the opposition, to provide the House with a breakdown of how the money was spent as well as the structure of the Climate Change unit for which the money was allocated.
Murray stressed that the office was a pivotal agency as it relates to the LCDS, and as such, the structure and emoluments should be made known, but Webster informed the House that since it was a new office the structure was still being developed.
The minister also failed to inform the House how the figure of fifty million dollars was arrived at as a supplementary for the Climate Change unit which had already been allocated in excess of $13M.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud was also on the receiving end of a barrage of questioning/clarifications on the money that was requested and approved for the assistance to communities affected by El Niño conditions.
Murray, who was again on the frontline of the questioning, sought to verify what are the criteria used to decide on which communities would be the recipients of any assistance.
According to Persaud, the requested $10M was an amount requested as part of the $49M programme, pointing to the already allocated $10.5M as well as some money that was requested under the National Agricultural Research Institute and the New Guyana Marketing Corporation.
He said that the assistance by way of pumps, pipes and sprinklers among other items were distributed after consultations by a large cadre of representatives, inclusive of technical officers, NDIA officials, GWI officials as well as community leaders.
As it relates to the $400M subsidy for rice farmers, Persaud said that the Government had no apologies for providing assistance, pointing out that farmers cultivate between one and 30 acres were eligible for the vouchers each valued at $2,200 which goes towards the purchase of fertilizers.
The Local Government Minister was also subjected to a line of questioning as it relates to some $20.6M for dietary supplies, which Minister Khellawan Lall said was to cater for an additional 90 students.
He was speaking to an increase in students in the Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) where Murray deduced that it cost some $50,000 to feed a child per month given the period for which the money was allocated. Pointing out that the authorities may want revise the minimum wage.
Lall had told the House that it had cost some $800 per day to feed a student, but Murray insisted that based on the period of time for which the money was approved as against the number of children, then the figure had to be higher.
The Junior Finance Minister had to also defend additional monies requested, and allocated under capital expenditure to the Office of the President, for the purchase of office equipment.
According to Webster, the money (which is in addition to an initial $14.5M) was for the purchase of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and some filing cabinets, but this infuriated the opposition, particularly Murray, who questioned what sort of crisis warranted the purchase of filing cabinets and a UPS as an emergency expenditure.
The Shadow Finance Minister was adamant that the vague answers being proffered were unsatisfactory. “If it is so urgent to raid the contingencies fund, how come you can’t tell us what it is for?”
A $1.3B request was also unsuccessfully challenged as it relates to a road programme for the Ministry of public works and Communication, even after the subject Minister Robeson Benn told the House that the monies would not be completely spent by year end.
This caused Murray to plead to no avail with Benn to return to the coffers the hundreds of millions that he knew would not be spent on roads this year, but is still being requested.
Benn told the House that about 94 per cent of the works slated for the initial allocation would be completed and about 60 per cent of what is now being asked for will be used, but the projects will roll over to the New Year.
He said that the Ministry could use the El Niño dry spells to complete a significant amount of works as it relates to the construction of roads.
While not being able to tell the House exactly who were the contractors that are the beneficiaries of the allocations, he promised to make the information available at a subsequent date.

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