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Finance Minister refutes claims of abuse of ‘Emergency Fund’
“How do you explain the fact that an Opposition controlled Parliament approved 92.6 percent of the contingency transactions? Where is this abuse?”
Those were questions posed by the Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh in his response to allegations by members of the Opposition that he was found to be abusing the Contingency Fund.
Finance Minister,
Ashni Singh
The Opposition had contended that this was highlighted by the Auditor General in several of his reports. This was also supported by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman.
The Contingency Fund is a reserve of money set aside to cover emergencies. The Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) sets out a criterion for what situations can qualify as ‘emergency’ and as such warrant use of funds.
If Government deems a situation an emergency, they would use the funds. The Parliament would then examine during a sitting whether the situation for which the funds were used was actually an emergency according to the law.
Dr. Singh said, “I am aware that over time, the Auditor General has said that the fund has been abused. The only problem with that is that the very Parliament that established the Fund has an opportunity to vote on whether it considered each use of the Fund appropriate or not.”
The Member of Parliament said that on every occasion prior to the tenth Parliament that he has served as Minister of Finance, the National Assembly approved the use of the Fund.
“You may wish to say that during that time Government had a majority and so you may wish to deduce that it comes as no surprise that Parliament approved every use.
“In the tenth Parliament, the government is in the minority. During the tenth Parliament, six financial papers were submitted to the National Assembly in relation to the Fund. Those six financial papers were financial paper number seven of 2011, number nine of 2011, number four of 2012, number six of 2012, number two of 2013, and number four of 2013. The total value of Contingency Fund transactions spread over those six financial papers is roughly $9.4B.
“A total $8.7B of that sum was approved, representing 92.6 percent of the total value of the transactions.”
The Finance Minister added, “The National Assembly of the tenth Parliament where the opposition is in the majority approved 92.6 percent of those transactions. Let us say that you want to call the 100 percent (approval) an aberration in the ninth Parliament. How do you explain the fact that an opposition controlled Parliament approved 92.6 percent? Where is this abuse?”
Dr. Singh added that he is proud of the fact that Government was able to convince the National Assembly that more than 90 percent of their Contingency transactions were worthy of approval.
“What this says is that they endorse the responsible use of it. That’s what the statistics say. So never mind the political drama. It is nice to say the abuse of the funds but what do the facts say? Even the ones not approved, they were by no means questionable transactions,” the Minister concluded.
The Auditor General, in his 2012 report, said that advances continued to be issued from the Contingency Fund, which did not meet the required criteria for such advances, resulting in $95.661M being drawn from the Fund and utilized to meet expenditure that did not meet the eligibility criteria as defined in the Act.
The PAC Chairman said that Secretary to the Treasury, Nirmal Rekha, seemed unable to clarify why this continues to happen.
Trotman had said that as a member of the Parliament, it is imperative for politicians to uphold the Constitution.
“But I must commend the PAC for discharging its functions. It is doing a lot of work. However, it is really making no sense if the recommendations of the PAC are not going to be adhered to by the government.
“This flagrant disregard for their findings is a matter of serious concern and Government is expected to bring its self in compliance or else the system will be broken and that is not what the people voted for,” the Speaker concluded.
The PAC Chairman had also stated that there remains a significant number of applications made for the Contingency Fund that the Auditor General deemed to be outside the criteria.
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