Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Govt still to adjust to 2014 Budget Cuts – Nandlall
Attorney General Anil Nandlall commenting on the 2014 Budget cuts which have left certain entities now feeling the brunt of the cuts outlined that a specific procedure by government has not been worked out on the way forward with respect to the cuts.
Attorney General
Anil Nandlall
The combined opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance for Change (AFC), based on the Chief Justice’s ruling that the opposition could no longer cut the Budget, only approve or disapprove, disapproved in excess of $37B of the $220B budget in areas that they deemed were contentious.
Because of the Chief Justice ruling the opposition could no longer cut line items within the budget only disapprove of the whole section entirely so areas that were deemed as contentious were disapproved with areas that were deemed by the combined opposition as non problematic.
Some of the non-problematic areas that were disapproved included the Capital and Current expenditure under the Office of the President (OP), the subsidy for Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) and the University of Guyana subsidy among others.
Of recent the GEA and OP have registered complaints publicly over the disapprovals and stated the effects of the cuts have started to ring home.
The combined opposition has since outlined that the government is making a fuss over nothing because all the areas that were disapproved and deemed to be non problematic the government could return with via Supplementary appropriation to the National Assembly to have those funds restored.
Nandlall outlined however that the opposition’s position is very strange since the combined opposition withheld support from certain budgetary allocations and said further that they were “very conscious and deliberate in their actions”.
“They must have contemplated what the consequences of these actions would be. Despite government’s pleas they proceeded to arrogantly withhold their support,” he noted.
Nandlall said that he found it strange that “they are now requesting government to bring to the National Assembly in the form of supplementary estimates which they consciously and deliberately disapproved.”
The point, according to the AG, is that the opposition knows that disapproving certain line items in the Budget will eventually lead to the disapproval of others and these others he said are inexplicably linked and the opposition was made aware of that by government.
Nandlall said that the government “does not operate and will not operate at the whims, fancies and caprice of the opposition.”
He continued that the combined opposition disapproved certain positions of the budget and they did so conscious of the consequences and said “that government will charter its own way forward on this matter, at its own time and upon its own terms.”
According to Nandlall, “The joint opposition had demonstrated clearly that the constitution and the law mean nothing to them. Their actions have been struck down by the Courts and in almost all instances by their work and conduct they have demonstrated a callous disregard for the pronouncements of the Court.”
Nandlall said that in terms of a specific procedure that has not been worked out as yet but mentioned that “all of this could have been avoided if they were no disapprovals” and posited the way forward is not as straight forward “as the opposition might think.”
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Fastest growing economy and an empty stadium
…Peeping Tom Kaieteur News- It’s a classic Guyanese tale, really. You live in the fastest growing economy in the... more
Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Weekend Cartoon
