GOVERNMENT Chief Whip, Ms. Gail Teixeira, has vehemently rejected assertion from the combined Opposition that the Government withdrew itself from the negotiations of the sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee of Supply, which up to last evening was conducting detailed reviews of allocations in the 2014 Budget.

The sub-committee was set up on Wednesday at the suggestion of Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman, and was vested with responsibility for negotiating contentious allocations in light of the ruling of the Acting Chief Justice on the National Assembly’s right to cut the National Estimates.

In January this year, Acting Chief Justice, Mr. Ian Chang, ruled that the National Assembly has no right to cut the national budget. The Chief Justice handed down his decision in the High Court on January 29. In the preliminary ruling, given in June 2012, the CJ had ruled that the National Assembly had a role to either approve or disapprove of the National Estimates, not to cut them.

According to Ms. Teixeira, since its inception on Wednesday, the sub-committee met once on the following day, Thursday, and a subsequent meeting was cancelled by the Speaker himself after A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Chief Whip, Ms. Amna Ally, failed to meet its side of the agreement.

According to that agreement, the issues of contention were to have been presented to the sub-committee at 9:00 hrs. in the morning, prior to the day’s sitting in the National Assembly, for discussion.

“We were shut out from process…We were deliberately shut out by the Opposition’s breaking of the agreement,” Teixeira said, adding that if no areas of discussion to be addressed were submitted, there could have been no talks.

She stressed that Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) must not misinform the National Assembly of the workings of the sub-committee, and by extension, misinform the Guyanese people.
Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, echoed similar sentiments and cited several other agreements that were not honoured by the Opposition, including the agreements reached prior to the 2012 cuts to the national Budget.

MEANINGFUL TALKS
Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, said the Government has said more than once that meaningful talks cannot be held unless the Government has an exhaustive list of the Opposition’s concerns.

He stressed that to date, no such list has been produced and it is “impossible” to identify areas of compromise, unless the areas of concern are known.
According to him, with no list, there is no basis for discussion.
The Finance Minister roasted the Opposition for wanting the Government’s side to come to a blind compromise.
Dr. Singh added that APNU’s Chief Whip, Amna Ally, last and only list of concerns included four “vague” items with no statements as to what was being requested – if it was a reduction or an entire cut.

In a prior comment, the Finance Minister said, “It is difficult to say you are interested in compromise when you are not willing to say what issues are worrying you…This has not been done….How do I know when I compromise today (that) tomorrow another 10 things won’t come up… The appetite for compromise depends on the scope of the compromise being demanded.”

The Minister made it clear that there has been no commensurate Opposition response in terms of a genuine willingness to compromise.

“We are willing to engage,” he stressed. “We are willing to compromise, and have indicated the abundance of the Government’s willingness to compromise.”

Singh was pellucid in maintaining that there can be no blind compromise. He restated the Government’s need to have a clear idea of all the issues of concern to the Opposition, and a specific contention, so the Government can be able to rationalise its position going forward.
Written By Vanessa Narine