Where did MoH $1.3B to buy drugs come from?

Jun 16, 2012 News

…Ramjattan says money not reflected in Budget

The Alliance for Change (AFC) will at the very next sitting of the National Assembly be posing a question to the Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, seeking clarification on just where did the $1.3B for a recent purchase of drugs by the new Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (NGPC) headed by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, come from.
According to the AFC Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, he has been perusing the budgetary allocations and to date he is yet to uncover where in the budget the money is reflected for the purchase of drugs.
According to Ramjattan, he has since indicated to the Minister (Dr. Bheri Ramsaran) that he will be posing the question in Parliament in ‘written format’ with adequate enough ‘Notice’ for Dr. Ramsaran to effectively response.
The next Sitting of the National Assembly will be on June 27 and according to Ramjattan the recent rancor over the accountability of public monies and the questionable accounting practices, have prompted him to urgently seek clarification from the Minister, on “where did this money ($1.3B) come from…it is not in the Budget…I don’t see it in the Budget…which Line Item is it under,” asked Ramjattan.
Under Capital Expenditure, where Ramjattan says that such expenditure would normally be reflected, it cannot be found.
Missing $6.5B
The veteran Parliamentarian, who has been actively involved over the past 20 years in the scrutiny of Budgetary Expenditures, also says that another critical bloc of money that he is unable to locate in the Budget, is a revenue stream from the European Union.
Ramjattan spoke to the fact that some $6.5B is also not being reflected in the revenue stream of the Estimates of Expenditure for 2012, presented by the Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh.
Ramjattan says that the money from the EU is aid that stems from the cuts in the preferential pricing for sugar, and was something that the Minister of Finance expected as a revenue inflow for this year.
The AFC Chairman pointed to the criticism surrounding the Budget Cuts and reminded that $18B of the $21B cut from the 2012 Expenditure is money not actually available to the country.
This money is a foreign inflow but is reflected each year since the deal inked with Norway in the Budget, although the money is yet to be accessible.
Ramjattan asked how the Minister could have that $18B reflected in the Budget as revenue when this money is still not available to Guyana for spending and monies that had been promised from the EU which is delivered each year is not reflected in the Budget.
“Where is that money from the EU reflected in the Budget? Dr. Ashni Singh expected that money so why is it not in the Budget?”

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Where did MoH $1.3B to buy drugs come from?

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