PPP again accuses Govt of ‘extravagant spending’

Jul 28, 2015 News

Repeating statements that have been deemed by the masses as “highly hypocritical,” People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Clement Rohee, said that his party continues to pay close attention to the “extravagant spending expedition the APNU+AFC has embarked on since assuming office.”

PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee

Speaking at PPP’s weekly press conference held at Freedom House yesterday, Rohee accused the new government of wasting taxpayers’ money but sidestepped questions on private expenses of former President Bharrat Jagdeo that burdened the treasury.
Rohee told the media that the APNU+AFC administration is currently doling out millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to make the State Houses “comfortable for their upper bureaucratic class officials. But it is these very houses which PPP officials occupied, temporarily or otherwise, for 23 years without a single complaint.”
The General Secretary claimed that the PPP, while in power, chose not to “waste” taxpayers money on “fancying up” State Houses. He said that this is a demonstration of the values of the PPP as against that of the “big shots” in the APNU+AFC government.
For the PPP, Rohee said, “What mattered most was the work the party was doing while in government, whereas for the APNU+AFC, what matters to them, is the luxurious conditions in which they need to live and not the work they have been elected to do.”
The former Minister said that the “spending extravaganza began with the public official swearing-in of (President David) Granger, followed by his multi-million-dollar inauguration, the victory parties, luxury trips, the birthday party at Camp Ayanganna and the list goes on.”
In this regard, Rohee completely ignored the several public statements made by the government to the effect that friends of the coalition sponsored both the inauguration ceremony held at the National Stadium as well as the birthday celebrations for the President.
When reminded of these announcements, the General Secretary said, “I do not have to believe what they say.”
He also told the media that while the Granger-Administration is wasting tax dollars, “the nation suffers as a result of floods, the persistent witch-hunting of public servants and lack of any viable economic plan by the government to take the country forward. From all indications, we are returning to vintage Burnhamism.”
In spite of the countless revelations, about discoveries of empty state accounts, transfers of vehicles, misuse of state resources including the millions of dollars paid to a journalist to cover the Dr. Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, Rohee called for more evidence.
He said, “One may recall the spurious accusations this very APNU+AFC made against the PPP/C when in office about unauthorized spending of taxpayers’ money. Now they are in a position to make this information public, they should do so immediately.”
The General Secretary then, on behalf of his party, called on the “Granger Administration to state how much money is being spent by the government without parliamentary approval and to state the areas in which these monies were spent.” (Abena Rockcliffe)