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Coalition Govt. expended $4.2B from Contingency Fund after passage of NCM – Finance Minister
Minister of Finance, Ashni Singh.
Kaieteur News – According to the recently sworn in Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) regime had expended some G$4.2B from the country’s Contingency Fund—a reserve of money set aside to cover possible unforeseen future expenses.
The Finance Minister, in a statement to the press, pointed out that despite the coalition being a caretaker government, it went ahead and withdrew some G$4.2B after the successful passage of the December 21, 2018 no-confidence motion (NCM). What the Finance Minister was keen to point out as well that the hefty sum was left “uncleared” by the former government.
“Much to our astonishment and during the latter part of 2019 after the Caribbean Court of Justice’s (CCJ) ruling in June 2019, no less than G$4.2 billion dollars was drawn from the Contingency Fund to meet a variety of expenditure that had not been budgeted for,” he explained.
The Minister reminded that considering an election was impending and that even though then President, David Granger, had acknowledged that his Government was in caretaker mode, the Government nevertheless dipped into the Contingency Fund to draw down on G$4.2 billion from July 2019 onwards until as late as December 2019.
Against this background, the Minister explained, “Ironically, the Government had boasted the previous year that they had not used the Contingencies Fund in two years, 2017 and 2018, and it appeared to have been a matter of great pride to them. Yet in the second half of 2019 when they were clearly in caretaker mode, they appeared to have no reservations about turning to the Contingencies Fund and drawing down no less than G$4.2 billion.”
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