Continuation of controversial projects...Finance Minister has to face the consequences of his “feral blast” on the constitution- AFC

Continuation of controversial projects…Finance Minister has to face the consequences of his “feral blast” on the constitution- AFC

Jul 10, 2014 News

“Just like when you can knock down someone on the road and drive away, that is what he is doing with the constitution.

Minister of Finance
Dr. Ashni Singh

Collide with it and then go ahead as if nothing has happened because he is the Finance Minister. That is the terrible nature of the country now.”
This was the contention of leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan in response to the assertions by the Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh that government is going ahead with controversial developmental projects despite the combined opposition (AFC and A Partnership for National Unity) disapproved of them in National Assembly.
Members of the opposition had said that while some of the projects would be good for Guyana, their structure and the contracts to execute them are unacceptable.
At his most recent press conference, at the National Communications Networks studio, Dr. Singh told the media that the PPP administration has every intention to finish all the projects it has started despite what the opposition says or does.
He said that this is because the administration most candidly feels that it is what is best for Guyana.
“We will not let these development projects be derailed; we will persevere with them; we have no difficulties subjecting them to the ultimate degree of parliamentary scrutiny,” the Minister had said.
According to Ramjattan (one has) to spend monies with approval, otherwise what is the nature of the purse of the Nation. Ashni Singh seems not to understand that…
“You are committing rape and then you are saying that nothing will happen when you breach the law in Guyana.”
AFC Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo, wading in on the Finance Minister’s statement said that Government spent the $4.5B unlawfully in violation of the constitution and didn’t even find it necessary to expedite the process to validate the spending on the Thursday the 10th sitting of Parliament.
“Even in defiance and disregard of the National Assembly you spend, one would have thought that if you had any modicum of shame or any sense of latent responsibility you would come to the Parliament to seek ex ante Parliamentary approval,” said Nagamootoo.
He said on their (government) own call they had differed Parliament from the last sitting to the 10th of July “so we thought there was no real emergency or pressing need to come and have this matter before the National Assembly.”
No Confidence
Nagamootoo continued that withstanding the fact that the next sitting of the National Assembly on the Thursday would be private members day, “a government matter would take precedent if they so wish and they could’ve brought it forward. But I think that they are having political diarrhea knowing that the constitution provides an option for the removal of an unpopular government by way of a no confidence motion.”
The AFC Vice Chairman contended that even a “mere hint of a no confidence option being exercised, has caused them to decide that they are not coming forward with any supplementary to clear the illegal spending.

AFC Vice Chairman Moses Nagamootoo

“They have ideally exercised that option on a specific event of illegality and or unconstitutionality.”
Speaking to the state of the no confidence motion Nagamootoo said that the government people are having consultations right now. “This is contingent on the happenings of a certain event of unconstitutionality and illegality. For us the statement of Excesses is an example of outrageous, unlawful spending.”
Commenting on the no confidence motion, Nagamootoo said that the motion was not drafted. “We did not produce a draft motion because we have not arrived there.
“We have only said that we are considering this as an option under the constitution and we have taken consultations on it even with APNU, but we have never promised at this stage we would have a draft motion.”
“Drafting a motion is not a complicated thing. It could be done within the shortest possible time.”
The Finance Minister, in justifying the legitimacy of spending $4.5B of the $30B that was not approved by the combined opposition in the 2014 budget, pointed to the Guyana Constitution which reads.
The AFC Vice Chairman said that the Finance Minister has been badly advised “as he has been on so many other occasions on this issue; I believe that he has not interpreted the constitution correctly and he is on a misadventure of his own.
“We don’t believe the article of the constitution he is referring to gives him any protection from his illegality. He has to, at some stage; face the consequences of his feral blast on the constitution.”