“No Confidence Motion”

Nov 18, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The ‘No Confidence’ Motion filed against the APNU/AFC Coalition Government is timely and opportune since corruption, mismanagement and squandering of public funds are at its zenith. The entire economy is in a downward spiral, crimes are on the increase, jailbreaks have now become the norm and the entire social fabric is disintegrating.
It must be noted that unlike this motion brought by the Leader of the Opposition, Jagdeo, the ‘no confidence’ motion brought against the Ramotar Administration in August 2014, was contrived solely to wrest power by deliberately creating the ‘reasons’. That motion presented by Moses Nagamootoo read, ‘BE IT RESOLVED: That this National Assembly has no confidence in the Government’.
The ‘no-confidence’ motion was to protest spending of some $22.5 million without parliamentary approval on items ranging from school stipends to an airport expansion project. This ‘scissoring’ of the budget was initiated by Moses Nagamootoo, the same person who piloted the ‘no confidence’ motion in Parliament! The $22.5 billion was the restoration of monies cut from the budget for the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF), hinterland airports, the University of Guyana student loan programme, vouchers for public school students, and the One Laptop for Family Project.
The second reason was the non-transfer of monies to the Consolidated Fund, which was held, legally, by semi-autonomous agencies and the third reason was a procedural breach in the $4 billion transferred to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and allegation of corruption. However the Opposition Leader has maintained that, ‘They have not proven any of these issues so far.’
We have now seen that these allegations of procedural breaches are nothing compared to what is happening under the Coalition Government. It must be recalled that the budget cuts during Ramotar’s Administration were meant to frustrate the functioning of the Ramotar Administration and to stymie social and economic development and to oust the PPP/C from power. The Budget was cut in 2014 by $37.4 billion, 2013 by $31 billion and 2012 by $21 billion. These cuts were unconscionable and illegal to say the least! They were never proven to be illegal! Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang ruled that the National Assembly has no right to cut the National Budget and the National Assembly has a role to either approve or disapprove of the National Estimates, not to reduce them. Yet they were used as reasons to bring down a democratically elected Government. Compare this with the intent and purpose of this PPP motion of ‘no confidence’.
We have seen that until now the US$18 million signing bonus which was the subject of many deceptive statements from the Finance Minister and his government, is yet to be included in the Consolidated Account. The Durban Park Project spending of over $1.3 billion is yet to be fully accounted for; the many breaches of the Procurement Act ($605 million sole sourcing of drugs at the GHPC and the $148 million Demerara Harbour Bridge study, etc), taxpayers losing more than $1 billion in 2017 due to overpayments to contractors, payments for goods without vouchers and payments for goods that were not delivered, unaccountability of more than $1 billion spent by the Amerindian Ministry, the numerous cases of poor accountability highlighted in the Auditor’s general report 2017, the loss of more than 30,000 jobs, the devastation of the sugar sector and the impoverishment of the dismissed workers and the negative ripple effects, the exorbitant increases in over 200 taxes placing an additional $60 billion tax burden on the people and businesses; reckless and wasteful borrowing(over 200 billion), spiraling corruption at all levels of Government, decreasing budgetary allocations vital for agriculture and infrastructural developments, massive increases in various criminal activities including the total destruction of the Georgetown and frequent jail breaks and increasing police brutality. How can there be any confidence when our treasury is being raided on a daily basis and we, the taxpayers continue to receive less but are demanded to increasingly pay more.
The people have spoken at the Local Government Elections as is evidenced both by those who voted and those who abstained. The APNU and the AFC must not be fooled that voters’ education was lacking for the poor turnout at the Local Government Election. Those who stayed home did that intentionally. The voters apathy displayed is as a result of the high cost of living, retrogressing living standards and lack of public security, these persons will willingly take part in a General Election to change these obstacles to the ‘good life’ sooner than 2020. On the other hand, those who have voted sent a stronger and graphic message to the APNU and the AFC that ‘enough is enough’ and it’s time to go!
The masses have lost confidence! Therefore, the ‘no confidence’ is definitely most opportune.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf

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