$22B more approved for spending

Apr 17, 2014 News

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…Finance Minister amends Budget to give Judiciary lump sum allocation

The National Assembly approved several billion dollars for a number of government agencies and Ministries as the Committee of Supply continued its scrutiny for the 2014 Budget.
While allocations under Office of the President was axed, the Committee successfully considered and approved monies for the Public and Police Service Commission to the tune of $69.6M; $85M was voted for the Teaching Service Commission; the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM),  $3.3B; the Office of the Ombudsman received approval for $35M; the Public Service Appellate Tribunal had its $19.1M allocation approved; $4.6B was also approved for the Office of the Prime Minister; $1.4B was approved for the Parliament; $3.4B was approved for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; $288.4M was approved for the Ministry of Legal Affairs; $829M for the Public Service Ministry and $778.2M for the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.
The first up for consideration by the Committee of Supply following the massive slashes to the Office of the President was the allocation to the Public Service and Police Commission.
The main query was why were the two bodies put together in the budget estimates but Prime Minster, Samuel Hinds, explained that while there were two commissions there was only one Secretariat for them.
Next up was that of the Teaching Service Commission. Basil Williams of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) enquired into the employment details of the commission.
The Prime Minister informed Williams that the employees are there on a yearly contract with the option to renew each year
APNU’s Volda Lawrence also enquired into the increased allocations for security for the Commission and queried as to whether there would be more sites guarded or more guards employed.
According to the Prime Minister, the increase was to ensure that the Commission complied with the minimum wage order.
This explanation was also given for a number of other agencies whose allocations for security increased noticeably for 2014.
GECOM was also subjected to intense scrutiny.
APNU’s Chief Whip, Amna Ally, under the Commission’s recurring expenditure questioned a $168M allocation and was told that this was related to preparations for Local Government Elections.
The Prime Minister announced that $100M has been set aside for voter education while another $3.5M is to assist with the land demarcation exercise.
He spoke to allocations that have been set aside for polling staff and scrutineers among others.
On the issue of the elections, he told the House that it entails 585 constituencies and “we think there is a great need for voter education.”
Chief Finance Spokesperson for APNU, Carl Greenidge, used the opportunity to question the Prime Minster on whether recommendations by Commonwealth group following 2011 elections were being implemented.
The Prime Minster said that many of the issues are still under consideration while some are being adopted and implemented, one such being electronic finger printing at point of registration.
As was the case with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the allocations for the Office of the Prime Minister were approved without a question being asked by any of the Opposition Members.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett under scrutiny over the allocations in her sector announced that Guyana will be hosting heads of mission conferences this year.
She announced too that the nation will be posting staff to Kuwait, New Dehli, India and South Africa this year.
Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, when the House was about to consider estimates for the Ministry of Legal Affairs, specifically the estimates for the Supreme Court, amended the Budget Document so as to collapse all of the allocations for that body so that it will be given as a lump sum.
This would see the allocations for the Supreme Court for the first time being given as a lump sum so that it can determine how it wants to spend its money in keeping with the Constitution.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, hailed the move by Government and reminded the House that the Constitution makes this demand in order to ensure the independence of the Judiciary.
“In effect we are seeking to make the judiciary insulated from financial control of the executive,” said Trotman.
Meanwhile, as the proceedings in the Parliament transpired in the House while on the outskirts, the protests continued.
While the previous day there was only the presence of an Amerindian Contingent, yesterday’s protest saw a small band of APNU supporters across the road with the two hurling remarks at each other during the entire first session.
This confrontation however escalated as the Amerindians were about to leave the antagonizing continued and somebody threw water from a bottle towards the APNU supports.
This led to some of the APNU protestors making a rush on the Amerindians with threats of violence but a quick intervention by the Police ranks on the ground prevented a further escalation.

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