The government must heed the call for changed financial procedures

Feb 19, 2012 Features / Columnists, My Column

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It is amazing how some things actually passed unnoticed until someone pointed them out. This has been the case in the Parliament whenever the august body met to discuss matters of a financial nature. For almost twenty years the nation hardly paid any attention to what happened in the Parliament whenever there was a budget presentation or when there were deliberations about supplementary allocations.
Going back to the period before the People’s Progressive Party acceded to office, the then government paid scant attention to the rules and regulations. The ability to account to the nation was lacking. Books were not audited and the PPP made sure that the nation knew that there were irregularities. In fact, the PPP said that it smelled corruption and it went all the way to prove that there was corruption. Long after it came to government it insisted that the previous administration was corrupt and people believed.
The talks of corruption included a report that Forbes Burnham was one of the richest men in the world; the Forbes Magazine listed him at number five. This rumour came about because of the perceived financial irregularities in the National Assembly. People believed that the people in Government were siphoning off money.
Today, such allegations merely bring a wry smile to people’s lips. They now know that the charges were intended to sway public opinion. It now turns out that the very people who shouted corruption are being accused of rampant corruption.
I am not going to deal with what appears to be the amassing of physical assets by people who had nothing. Some of them have been bold to invoke legal action against people who dared to talk about this anomaly.
And so it was that last Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly was convened to deliberate over some money that had been spent but needed to be accounted for. The Opposition holds the majority in Parliament and one of the pledges the two Opposition parties made to the electorate was that there would be financial accountability.
In the past, moneys that should have gone into the public treasury never made it there. Instead, it was used as people in the administration saw fit. There was the money from the Lotto funds which President Bharrat Jagdeo said that he would never allow Parliament to have a say in. There was money that the Privatisation Unit held that never went into the Public Accounts. Again the nation had no idea how such moneys were spent.
The focus has now shifted to President Donald Ramotar. When he selected his Cabinet people actually said that he was merely perpetuating what existed before. Development necessitates change; for there to be trust there also needs to be change. When Ramotar kept the same Cabinet, with a few minor changes, people expected the same thing that went on in the past and which cost the PPP its Parliamentary majority.
In the first instance, no government should spend people’s money without Parliamentary approval, but this has been the norm for more than a decade. There was no one to stop it and any questions were merely glossed over. Life was one big joke for the people who controlled the purse strings and allowed money to be leaked out of the system.
President Ramotar must have been aware of what was happening. He was sitting in the National Assembly and he had to be privy to some of the discussions. He had to see money going where it should not have.  He was there when the Housing Minister found himself in trouble for spending $4 billion dollars without Parliamentary approval.
The Minister proceeded to lie and was censured. It turned out that there was no Parliamentary disciplinary action because the elections brought an end to the Parliament. This person was duly appointed to the same position in the new Cabinet.
The opposition voted against four provisions—one dealing with the National Awards ceremony. The opposition argument was that the holding of that ceremony was known well in advance. That being the case, there was nothing to stop the government from going to parliament for the money. The truth is that the government did not think it necessary since the nation was going to make a noise in any case.
There was another vote for the Specialty Hospital. President Jagdeo had spoken about this hospital as early as April, a mere two months after the 2011 budget. However there was no move to Parliament for the money until the end of the year.  Instead the money was spent without parliamentary approval and then there was the move to Parliament to account for this expenditure.
One question that was asked all the time was, “Was there no planning before the money was spent?” Then there was the explanation. More often than not, the explanation was a few words that meant nothing. In pursuit of transparency, the opposition has asked that the spending be explained or their will be more of the same when parliament meets again on March 15.
But the government benches became very angry. How dare the opposition question the spending and then block it? No one has ever done that to us before. No one has the right to get us to change our spending ways.
Well the opposition is saying that the government may spend, but it must account for every cent. Some feel that by its course of action the government is going to refuse to allow the rule of law to prevail and move to another election. I have said this before. President Ramotar is the unknown quantity. He says that he wants to be a president who can boast of transparency. He had also said that he will work with the opposition.
Will those from the previous administration—the Jagdeo administration—allow him to do what he wants? Is President Ramotar his own man? I think so, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

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