AFC informs Govt of ‘no confidence’ motion

Jul 19, 2014 News

---

…Sends letter of intent to President

APNU still undecided…

As promised, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has delivered a letter to President Donald Ramotar outlining its intent of issuing a No Confidence Motion against Government, even though A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) remains undecided on the issue.

According to the AFC in its letter which was sent to the President yesterday, “Our Party sees no other alternative than to proceed with this constitutional mechanism for removal of an unpopular Government that has ceased to enjoy the confidence of the National Assembly and who by its actions has demonstrated an unlawful and contemptuous disregard for the Supreme Law of the Country.”
The ‘action’ to which he was referring, is the spending by Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh of $4.5B of the $30B that was disapproved by the combined opposition in the 2014 Budget.
The Finance Minister then went ahead and took the monies from the Consolidated Fund without the approval of Parliament.
The Constitutional Fund is the Fund “into which all public monies are placed and out of which all public expenditure should be met, only on the authority of Parliament.”
The Minister, in justifying the legitimacy of the $4.5B expenditure, pointed to Article 218 (3B) of the Guyana Constitution which reads: “If in respect of any financial year it is found—that any moneys have been expended for any purpose in excess of the amount appropriated for that purpose by the Appropriation Act or for a purpose for which no amount has been appropriated by that Act, a supplementary estimate, or as the case may be, a statement of excess showing the sums required or spent shall be laid before the Assembly by the Minister responsible for finance or any other Minister designated by the President.”
This provision, Dr Singh said, had been in the Constitution ever since 1980, and further, a Statement of Excess is not unknown to the political opposition, since over the past two years they would have approved at least 58.9 per cent of the amounts on three Statements of Excess that he has tabled as a result of the various budget cuts.
However, Ramjattan in his letter to the President asserted that the withdrawal/s from the Consolidated Fund was “unconstitutional” and “unauthorized.”
He said that it is the party’s belief that “such withdrawals as reported in Financial Paper #1 of 2014 are in clear contravention of Article 217 of the Constitution of the Republic of Guyana and Section 16 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act [FMAA].”
Article 217 of the Constitutions says “All revenues or other moneys raised or received by Guyana (not being revenues or other moneys that are payable, by or under an Act of Parliament, into some other fund established for any specific purpose or that may, by or under an Act, be retained by the authority that received them for the purpose of defraying the expenses of that authority) shall be paid into and from one Consolidated Fund.”
While Section 16 of the FMAA outlines that “there shall be no expenditure of public moneys except in accordance with Article 217 of the Constitution.”
“We believe that this action taken by your Government greatly exceeds the mandate given by the people of Guyana in the elections of 2011, in which your party received 48% of the vote.  I wish to emphasize that the Alliance For Change has always respected the results of those elections, the supremacy of the Constitution of Guyana and the Rule of Law which are the bases on which your party ought to govern” said Ramjattan in his letter.
He also emphasized that the “will of the Guyanese people is reflected in the composition of the National Assembly, and that one of the key roles played by that body is the authorization of all public spending.”
As such Ramjattan said that his Party therefore finds it “wholly unacceptable that your Government is now spending from the Consolidated Fund beyond the provisions of the Appropriations Act of 2014 or any other approved by the National Assembly.”
He said that the party “cannot condone, participate in or lend any support to such a serious breach of the Constitution and laws of Guyana, and we find it necessary in the light of the clear and present danger to the Constitution and the rule of law to explore all options necessary for safeguarding the public purse against further lawless spending.”
Ramjattan made mention of the vote of No Confidence which is enshrined in Article 106(6) of the Constitution which reads that  “The Cabinet including the President Shall resign if the government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
He outlined that the options for lawful and constitutional alternatives have “rapidly decreased” hence the reason why the party is proceeding with a vote of no confidence as prescribed by Article 106(6) of the Constitution.
APNUs Concerns
Meanwhile APNU has indicated through its Executive member Joseph Harmon that its leader David Granger is in receipt of a copy of the letter which APNU sent to the President.
He said with respect to the vote of no confidence, APNU has not ruled it out but “We have not concluded our discussions with the AFC on the matter as yet and this is why we are not at a stage where we are saying this is how we are doing it and when. I think it was more a question of timing than anything and not rather whether we support it or not…”

---

---