OP runs out of money to pay salaries, basic bills

May 23, 2014 News

The administration says it has run out of money to pay even its most basic bills, as a budget cut last month in Parliament starts to bite deep.
Speaking yesterday at his weekly press briefing, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, disclosed that the issue of the budget cuts was raised on Tuesday during the Cabinet of Ministers’ meeting.

Cabinet Secretary,
Dr. Roger Luncheon

With payday for May fast approaching, the stark clarity is that there is no money.
“The impact, were it to be felt, would essentially see us putting up the ‘for rent’ or ‘for sale’ sign as there is no money in the kitty…Nothing to support even the most routine activities of the Office of the President and the subvention agencies under the Office of the President.”
The Opposition during considerations of the 2014 National Budget voted against $37.4B, out of the $220B proposed by the administration.
The Opposition was targeting specific agencies, like the Government Information Agency (GINA) and National Communications Network (NCN), and a number of large-scale projects including the US$150M expansion of the Timehri airport and the building of the access roads to the Amaila Falls hydro project.
Among the entities affected was the Office of the President of which $1.3B was not approved for the current expenditure of the Administrative Services.
According to Luncheon, the impact of the cuts will affect workers at OP and a number of agencies which receives subventions.
The Cabinet Secretary said the impact of the cuts has not only threatened the discharge of the constitutional functions of the President, but livelihoods of many public officers as well. Many of these officers were appointed by the Public Service Commission to pensionable posts.
The budget disapproval may even be seen as denial of the workers’ constitutional rights, the official said.
“With such a track record, Guyanese must be warned and must be on the alert; the Opposition appears to have little attention, little care for the rights of ordinary Guyanese. They send the most conflicting of messages and conflicting of signals and this is all done as they pursue their narrow, partisan, political interests.”
Since 2012, the Opposition questioning Government’s spending and “lack of explanation” for a number of projects, has been cutting the National Budget presented by the Minister of Finance.
However, the High Court has ruled that the National Assembly does not have the power to cut the budget but rather can only disapprove it. The Government had restored the billions cut from the budget for the last two years.
The administration has not signaled whether it will take up the Opposition’s offer of going back to the National Assembly for some of the monies to be restored.