$7.9B in additional funding for Government

May 24, 2019 News

Government has approved additional funding to the tune of $7.9B in the Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2019, No. 7 of 2019. The political opposition was not present at yesterday’s proceedings.
The approved estimates are for several ministries, of which the highest sum was allocated to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. That Ministry was approved $2B for one current project and nine capital projects. The current project is for Rental of Buildings, specifically for the Rental of UN House. For that, the Ministry had been voted a provision of $199.7M in budget 2019, and it has now received $49.5M more. The capital projects for that Ministry include works on the East Bank – East Coast Demerara road Linkage, East Coast Demerara Highway Improvement, Sea and River Defence Works, rehabilitation for several marine vessels, and several roads and bridges across the country.
The Ministry of Communities received $1.49B toward its Sustainable Communities Development initiative, all for capital projects, though it requested $1.638B. The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) was allocated $700M for its plan to develop house lots. The Hinterland, Coastal and Linden Water Supply systems have been allocated $494M to increase government’s capacity to drill wells without having to hire contractors. The Ministry’s Urban Sewerage and Water project has been allocated $200M, while the Solid Waste Disposal Programme has gotten $100M to rehabilitate access roads and a bridge at Belle Vue and Haags Bosch Sanitary Landfill sites respectively.
$800M has been approved for the Ministry of the Presidency to meet payments of judgments awarded to Dipcon, and increased activities such as ministerial outreaches. The government was, in 2015, ordered to pay the Trinidad construction company, a sum in excess of US$2.2 million. It is unclear, however, how much of the approved sum will be used to start payments to Dipcon.
Other allocations are $79M for the Ministry of Communities to finance security services especially, $48M for the Guyana Police Force’s transportation works under the Ministry of Public Security, and $4.3M for Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Social Cohesion to purchase and install a telephone system.
Further, as requested during the last sitting of the National Assembly, Guyana Elections Commission has gotten $3.4B for the conduct of elections, and the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has been approved $25M of the $83M it had requested.
The total appropriation was approved from the Consolidated Fund and is for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019. It is in accordance with Article 219 of the Constitution and Sections 24 and 42 of Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003.

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