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Patterson’s budget case useless, must be dismissed – AG
Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, S.C.
Kaieteur News – Describing the case filed by APNU+AFC Parliamentarian, David Patterson, as useless and requesting its dismissal, Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., has reiterated the Government’s plea of the doctrine of necessity as the basis of the passage of the 2020 emergency budget.
Nandlall had previously asked the court to decline Patterson’s request to find that the budget allocations for constitutional agencies by the National Assembly on September 01, 2020, were done contrary to Section 80 B(2) of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA).
In his written submissions made to the Court, the AG, argued among other things, that the present case does not fall within the public interest exception since the successful passage of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Act into law has brought about a change in the law.
Consequently, he said the issue is not likely to arise again for resolution in the future and the applicant has failed and/or neglected to show how a bare declaration would be of any practical use for him or for the public in general.
In the circumstances, the AG asked that the Court dismiss the application and rule that the proceedings are academic at this time, since there is no legal issue in controversy.
In his written submissions, previously seen by this newspaper, Nandlall had argued to refuse the orders and declarations being sought by Patterson “since it would serve no useful purpose.” The Attorney General contends that failure to circulate the budget proposals for 23 constitutional agencies is justified by the doctrine of necessity.
Patterson, who is the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and who previously served as Public Infrastructure Minister under the previous APNU+AFC Government, complained that the proposals were not made available to his party before September 01, 2020, and as such, a breach of the Act was committed.
In his response however, the AG, noted the last time a budget was passed was in November 2018; being almost more than two years prior to the declaration of the March 2, 2020 election result.
He noted that during this period and in the absence of a budget, Guyana’s economy and productive sectors continued to plummet and the effective functioning of the State as a whole, became almost impossible.
The AG explained that fuelling Guyana’s “perilous state” was the COVID-19 global pandemic, which brought with it a heightened demand for health care services and brought Guyana’s economy to a grinding halt.
Further, Nandlall contends that given the country’s financial crisis, the present government was forced out of necessity to urgently pass an emergency budget, so as to enable the Government to restore stability in Guyana and to offer much-needed relief to Guyanese given the delay in having the 12th Parliament convened and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“An imperative necessity arose for immediate action to be taken to protect, preserve and safeguard the continuation of the effective functioning of the State. This necessity had arisen because of Guyana’s exceptional circumstances, commencing from December, 2018 and such circumstances had not been provided for in the Constitution nor contemplated by the framers of the Constitution,” the affidavit in support stated.
Additionally, the document pointed out that Government was obligated to “mop up” and bring into the public accounting architecture, billions of dollars that were unlawfully spent from the Consolidated Fund without Parliamentary approval and, as well as, billions of dollars drawn from the Contingency Fund without complying with the lawful requirements.
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