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Impact of budget cuts…Govt will have to pay millions in damages for affected projects – Nandlall
As tempers continue to flare on the Government’s side over moves by the parliamentary opposition to slash more than $30 billion from the 2013 National Budget, particularly the $1.25 billion allocated to the Specialty Hospital, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandall, in his most recent deliberation on the state of affairs has insisted that the act can be described as a “mystery.”
“On what basis a political party that seeks to present itself as an alternative Government can act in
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandall
a manner to deny people of our country proper and competent modern health care? It is simply a mystery!” Nandlall said at a recent People’s Progressive Party Civic press conference.
Moreover, he noted that no amount of machinations with words can justify the moves by the parliamentary opposition to deny the people of Guyana the quality of medical care and attention that the Specialty Hospital was designed to bring.
Leader of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, in retaliatory mode to claims that he had engineered the cuts because of personal interest, insisted that the cuts were imposed because the contract for the construction of the facility was “badly awarded” to the Indian company, Surendra Engineering Corporation.
But according to Nandlall, because of the budgetary cuts, the nation is now in a position where it is exposed to a tremendous amount of legal liability. This, he said, is due to the fact that “we have contracts now that we cannot discharge our obligations under. These contracts carry with them serious punitive sanctions for their breach.”
Turning his attention to cuts to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project, Nandlall disclosed that this project carries liquidated damages to the tune of some US$110, 000 per day which translates to approximately G$22 million if the Government is for any reason unable to discharge its obligation.
“Every 10 days it is $200 million…who will pay for this, if not the Guyanese people’s taxpaying dollars?” Nandlall asked.
“Instead of investing in other projects that can benefit our country, we now have to pay damages to external organisations…that is the jeopardy to which the opposition has exposed us,” the Legal Affairs Minister stressed.
He also mused over the issuance of a statement by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), which according to him, seemed to suggest that it was forced to act in the way it did – that is, to slash sections of the $208.8 billion 2013 National Budget -because it owed a duty to the people of the nation.
“Can you believe that a major opposition party in this country is telling the people of this country that they have a duty to deny them health care, they have a duty to deny them cheap and affordable and reliable electricity rates and sources of electricity, they have a duty to deny them lower airfares, that they have duty to expose them to the hazards of travels in the interior, because they have cut all the budgetary allocations to improve the safety of the airstrips in the interior,” Nandlall said.
He noted too that it is because of the unmitigated condemnation that “they have received from every level of the society they have been blocked into a corner and are now coming up with one puerile, infantile and ingenious explanation in their efforts to try to justify what they have done in the National Assembly.”
Nandlall pointed to his belief that an alternative government in any democracy ought to present an alternative plan to the Government if it disagrees with the Government’s plan for the development of the country.
“What alternative plan has this opposition presented – none…what they have done is to reduce our budget by 15 per cent. Is that a plan to develop this country?”
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