| … AFC boycott final day, PNCR walks out on Dr Ramsammy againBy Gary EleazarThe National Assembly last evening approved the 2010 budgetary expenditures along with the necessary legislation but not before a vibrant session between the Finance Minister,Authentic Carolina Panthers Jersey, Dr Ashni Singh, and his Shadow Winston Murray.The Alliance for Change as well as the GAP/ROAR Member of Parliament,J.R. Smith Jersey, Everall Franklin, did not show up to the final day of the budgetary debates.The final expenditures to be scrutinised by the opposition were the Ministry of Finance and the $2B allocation which was described as a provision for final payment,NFL Jerseys Wholesale, agricultural component of the new Skeldon Sugar Factory and machinery.That money will have to be repaid to the Government by GuySuCo and Murray questioned the ability of that company do make this repayment, given that it is already behind on one set of payments.He wanted to verify whether the taxpayers of Guyana will not have to be saddled with the repayment of the monies to China and to the Caribbean Development Bank.Dr Singh in response to this query said that he did not want to speculate but was adamant that the Government would not waiver from its commitment to ensuring that the industry emerges from the difficulties it is currently faced with.He did confirm that there were discussions with GuySuCo as it relates to monies owed to the Government.Murray also sought to query from Dr Singh if the monies from Norway were not forthcoming, given the fact that conditions have to be met to qualify, whether the Low Carbon Development Programmes which are slated to utilise some $6.1B will see that figure being added to the deficit or programmes will have to be cut.Again Dr Singh told the Shadow Finance Minister that this was not necessarily the case but also that he did not want to speculate.Dr Singh also assured the House that the money, once acquired, will be placed into the Consolidated Funds so that it could be approved by the House before any spending could take place, much to the relief of Murray.Murray also took to task Dr Singh for what he called the non compliance with the recommendations of the Auditor General’s report.He made specific reference to the fact that State Planning Secretariat was still in existence even though the Auditor General has suggested that this entity be dissolved.Dr Singh told the House that the recommendations of the Auditor General were under consideration.Murray also questioned why the Financial Reports for that body from 1992 to 2007 have still not been submitted for Independent Audit as required by Law.The Finance Minister assured him that all of the reports were being audited by the Ministry of Finance.Another bone of contention for Murray was the fact that despite the Auditor General’s recommendation that the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit not be financed by way of subsidy this continues to be the case.This Dr Singh told the House was also under consideration and did not want to speculate what would be the direct outcome of those deliberations.Prior to scrutiny of this Ministry’s allocations, those that related to the Minister of Health,Pat Tillman Cardinals Jersey, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, was scheduled but as the Speaker announced that they were moving to that sector there was a shout of, “what…laptop,” and the Opposition members who were present at the time walked out of the Chambers.This was like the time when Dr Ramsammy was scheduled to make his presentation to the debates. The PNCR walked out and returned when he had completed his presentation.At that time, Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin, had told media operatives that they wanted to let people know that they still wanted the allegations against him investigated,Jerseys NFL China, namely facilitating the purchase of a ‘spy computer’ for self confessed drug lord Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan.Yesterday’s session saw the Speaker putting to a vote all of the expenditure by the different sectors all unchallenged.Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Deborah Backer, was relentless in her barrage of questions to the Substantive Minister Clement Rohee.Rohee was grilled on a range of issues including employees contracted with the Ministry, monies for Community Policing, water cannon and monies for the handling of corpses among others.Minister of Legal Affairs,Brian Poole Falcons Jersey UK, Charles Ramson, defended his Ministry’s allocations as well as Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai.Following two weeks of debate and scrutiny, the 2010 National Budget was with not one amendment. |
