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Vote against $1.2B for Specialty Hospital… A troubling and incomprehensible act – Cabinet Secretary
Adjectives like troubling and incomprehensible were uttered by Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday when he spoke of Wednesday night’s vote by the Parliamentary opposition against the $1.25 billion allocated for the Specialty Hospital in the 2013 National Budget.
Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon
Dr Luncheon was at the time hosting his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President.
He said that it was Government’s belief that with adequate explanations forthcoming, the opposition was prepared to support the budget for the agencies that were examined over the first two days of the considerations of estimates.
Over the period of Tuesday and Wednesday the estimates for the Ministries of Legal Affairs, Amerindian Affairs, Agriculture, Education and Health were examined, all of which were untouched by the opposition, with the exception of the allocation for the Specialty Hospital which falls under the Health Ministry.
Despite desperate attempts by the Government side to defend the allocation, it was slashed to zero, effectively marking the first attempt by the opposition to take advantage of its majority hold in the National Assembly during the ongoing debates.
According to Dr Luncheon, the earlier moves by the opposition to approve and authorise all preceding estimates on the basis of the provision of adequate information, had in fact given the Government the impression that it was in fact “a principled opposition”. However he noted that this intuition was soon dashed when the Alliance for Change (AFC)-engineered cut, which was supported by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), occurred.
Describing the move as “a most inexplicable event and one that is most troubling,” Dr Luncheon said that “this Specialty Hospital matter is not going to end here.”
According to him, in 2012 the Specialty Hospital was supported unanimously by the opposition and on the basis of that support, contractual obligations were ensued which today seem repudiable by the opposition.
The opposition’s action, he said, had “reared up the ugly head of capriciousness to cause significant uncertainty to be inserted into what we had seen, what we had projected as an evolving approach (or) a sensible approach by the opposition to the consideration of the estimates of the budget agencies.”
Moreover, the Cabinet Secretary noted that Government will now seek to be more wary, since more attention would have to be paid to the remaining days and to the debates on the estimates for the other agencies, particularly those of the Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance.
“These agencies have had their estimates drawn to the attention of the House in motions that identified the opposition’s intentions to cut,” Dr Luncheon said.
Need for Revision
Pointing to his belief that enough effort had not been spent so far in advising the opposition of how inexplicable its slashing act was, Dr Luncheon likened the Specialty Hospital Project to a diver having already left a high board “…I don’t think he can turn and go back up.”
“The opposition has an opportunity to review and revise its action before we come to the Appropriation Bill when this matter for all intents and purposes for the House is deliberated on finally. We have some time for commonsense to prevail; for contract law to be given effect to, and our anticipation is, sober thinking would descend on those who were responsible for this incomprehensible decision and that it would be corrected at some appropriate time,” stated Dr Luncheon.
He also disclosed that if the opposition fails to rescind its decision it could see Government having to endure a great deal of damage, something that it would have to start contemplating.
“The project cannot help but be off…and I’m acting on the assumption that…no intervention reverses what a decision on the cut led to. The administration, Government and the people of Guyana will be denied and they will have to step up to remedy the consequences of this act,” the Cabinet Secretary warned.
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