Budget slashes…Granger willing to restore billions, but wants reforms

May 02, 2012 News

– GTUC wants Commission of Inquiry for NIS, CLICO

A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) has reiterated its openness to restore billions of dollars slashed from the $192B National Budget, providing there are significant reforms in the operations of a number of government agencies.
Addressing workers during the May Day rally of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Leader of the Opposition, Brigadier General (rtd), David Granger, also brushed off government’s accusations that the opposition has totally slashed the budget of drug agency, Customs Anti-Nar

Opposition Leader David Granger

cotics Unit (CANU).

The traditional May Day messages, delivered to separate factions of workers at the National Park and Critchlow Labour College, was done to dwindling numbers this year amidst growing dissatisfaction, particularly by public servants.
Like last year, the Guyana Teachers’ Union went its separate way, a clear indication of the growing divide among the unions.
Yesterday, also, President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, Norris Witter, unveiled a list of demands that included a comprehensive review of the country’s taxes and of several questionable decisions by the courts and of constitutionally established Commissions.
According to Granger, the country is faced with severe problems, with jobs hard to find for graduating students. These all come at a time, he said, when there is very real fear by citizens over their safety.
“The problems with guns are to be blamed mainly on the drug trade, with many executions that could be linked.”

POLICE NEED PLANES
“The recent budget is clear evidence that Government has no intentions to help the crime situation, with no meaningful allocations for the police. They need ATVs (All-TerrainVehicles), planes and boats to patrol the borders, the former army chief noted.
“The University of Guyana is also sorely in need of help with the programmes urgently in need of revamping to meet Guyana’s demands. The $800M allocation is a sin.”
According to Granger, government missed a golden opportunity to work with the opposition to craft a “people’s budget”. Rather it was thrust upon the opposition at the last moment.
“They seh heh…we seh heh back,” Granger told an keyed up gathering at the college, which is still involved in a battle with government to get back a subvention that was stopped a few years ago, leaving the institution essentially crippled.
According to the Opposition Leader, APNU does not want to send any workers home. Referring to the cuts related to the National Communications Network (NCN) and the Government Information Agency (GINA), Granger insisted that the opposition was treated unfairly during the recent budget coverage with evidence pointing to no coverage.
Granger also pointed to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and NICIL, two government agencies where billions of dollars are being kept, but which do not fall under Parliamentary oversight.
“The November 28th elections are clear about the will of the people, with 175,000 persons voting for the opposition as against the 160,000 that cast their votes for the ruling party.
This is not bullyism, GINA and NCN were very biased …we are prepared, brothers and sisters, to restore anything that is cut, as long as the reforms are put in place. The PPP has divided this country into red regions and green regions.”

DEMANDS
Meanwhile, GTUC’s President Norris Witter, unveiled a number of demands that his union intends to seek help with.
“We are prepared to work assiduously with political parties in the opposition and other socio-economic organisations towards the realization of these demands.
These include a review of the Value Added Tax; a comprehensive review of the country’s tax system, a review of the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Act, and an introduction of an Agency Fee Act that will allow for financial assistance to unions for training, among other things.
Witter also said that the GTUC is interested in halting the current system which government year after year has been indulging in from bypassing established regulations of negotiations to arbitrarily announcing across the board increases for public servants.
“These hypocritical gestures must stop.”
GTUC will also be working to start negotiations on a new minimum wage and raising the retirement age from 55 years.
According to Witter, his union will also be calling for a commission to investigate CLICO and the National Insurance Scheme.
Yesterday, as in previous years, saw a distinct, continuing rift in the workers’ unions with the University of Guyana Workers Union, the Guyana Local Government Officers Union, and the Guyana Public Service Union, among others, joining the GTUC umbrella at the Critchlow Labour College.
The Guyana Teachers’ Union did not join the separate FITUG rally at the National Park but like last year, proceed to its headquarters on Woolford Avenue.