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Govt. used $3.3B without parliamentary approval

Nov 08, 2013 News

 

Quite a slap in the face of the National Assembly, government went ahead and spent $3,384,528,708 to provide cash to several entities and projects that the Opposition didn’t see as worthy of receiving state funds.
Just like last year, the allocations set aside in 2013 for the National Communications Network (NCN) -$81,337,000 and Government Information Agency (GINA) – $135,858,000, were reduced to $1 each.  However, the capital funding remained as provided for by the government, with NCN having $65M and GINA $13M.
Allocations set aside for Guyana Power and Light Inc.(GPL) were cut almost directly in half, as the Minister of Finance had provided $10.2B which was reduced by $5.2B, leaving a subvention of $5B for the company.
Cuts were also made to the Ministry of Public Works and Health. The Ministry of Public Works suffered one of the largest cuts of $5.6B, while the Ministry of Health lost $1.25B that was provided for the Specialty Hospital.
But Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh went ahead and spent, despite such actions by the Opposition.
According to a financial paper laid in parliament yesterday, the Office of the President through “Subsidies and contributions to Local Organizations” used $217,194,998; this was in addition to the money that was allocated to that line item. The document stated that that money was divided between NCN and GINA; GINA got $135,857,999 and NCN: $81,336,999.
It didn’t stop there; the government, through the Office of the Prime Minister, also spent $1,777,000,000 for capital transfer to the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL).
Then, under the Ministry of Public Works, government used $21,065,925 to aid in the completion of Hinterland airstrips and $80,000,000 as a grant for the acquisition of Civil Aviation equipment.
Also, for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Modernisation Project, government used $1,063,137,537 foreign cash and $65,432,848.
Further, under Ministry of Health – Regional and Clinical Services, saying its provisions for the Specialty Hospital Project, the government used $133,250,000 foreign cash and $34,456,400.
This year’s National Budget was approved $31.35 billion less than what was originally presented to the House.
Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh had presented a $208.8 billion budget on March 25.  After a series of amendments, the budget was reduced to $177.4 billion.
Nineteen billion dollars was cut from the allocation for the Low Carbon Development Strategy – this was the largest cut.

 

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