THE National Assembly on Thursday evening approved Financial Paper No. 3 of 2015, totaling $799,897,737 for current and capital estimates for the period September 2015 to December 2015 despite rigorous scrutiny by the opposition.The opposition insisted that the funds should have had the vote of the House before a new budget was presented in 2016. But the Government defended its decision, saying that the provisions were unavoidable, unforeseeable and were brought for clearance at the best possible time.

The Financial Paper No. 3 of 2015, totaling $799,897,737 for current and capital estimates for the period September 2015 to December 2015 was placed before the House for consideration by Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, but approval was only granted after intense grilling by the Opposition.

In the opinion of People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Member of Parliament, Irfaan Ali, the submission of the Financial Paper to the House was inconsistent with Articles 219 (3) and 220 (2) of the Constitution, which indicate that Supplementary Estimates should be laid in the National Assembly “as soon as practicable”.

“The above statements ‘as soon as practicable’ can be argued that if the Minister of Finance is able to have the budget for 2016 laid in the National Assembly, then nothing should have hindered the Supplementary Estimates from being laid prior to the 2016 budget,” Ali said, while alluding to Section 24 (5) of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, which states that “the Minister shall not in any fiscal year introduce more than five Supplementary Bills, except in circumstances of grave national emergency.”

After a lengthy suspension, the Finance Minister responded to the concerns raised by the PPP Parliamentarian, saying that the supplementary paper was brought to the House “as soon as practicable.”
But this explanation did not sit well with Ali or his colleagues on his side of the bench. Ali maintained that the Financial Paper for supplementary provisions should have been tabled before the 2016 Budget.

His colleague, former Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall drew the House’s attention to Article 220 of the Constitution, which indicates that funding can be utilized from the Contingency Fund if the Minister of Finance is satisfied that there is an urgent need for expenditure for which no other provision exists.

Nandlall said that while timing is critical in this regard, there is also another requirement which states that expenditure must be urgent and of which there is no other provision. In an attempt to build his case, the former Legal Affairs Minister alluded to the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, which states that the Finance Minister must be satisfied that the expenditures are unavoidable and unforeseeable before advances can be accessed from the Contingency Fund.

In response, Minister Jordan told the House that Nandlall was clear in his citation, noting that he (Jordan) was satisfied as Minister of Finance that the expenditures were “unavoidable and unforeseeable.”
Not satisfied with the explanations given on the part of the Government, the Opposition weighed into the particulars, starting with the supplementary provision provided to the Office of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

According to the supplementary paper, in addition to the voted provision of $181.1M made to the Guyana Information Agency (GINA) under subsidies provided by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, a supplementary provision was made of $11M to offset partial liabilities to the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL) incurred by GINA.

In response to a raft of questions put by Ali, his colleagues Nandlall and Bishop Juan Edghill, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo explained that the provisions were needed to pay a percentage of the $74M owed by GINA for political ads advertised in the Guyana Chronicle before May 2015.

Prime Minister Nagamootoo told the House that the partial payment was necessary in order to prevent the collapse of the Guyana Chronicle. He noted, however, that the discovery of this level of indebtedness was only made following the conduct of a forensic audit into the operations of GINA.

ADS FOR THE PPP
“It was only when we discovered that GINA was draining the lifeblood of the Chronicle that we decided that it was in fact an expenditure that could not be avoided. We could not have allowed the Chronicle to be killed because GINA had placed ads for the PPP in the Chronicle and they did not pay the Chronicle,” he explained.

CRIMINAL CHARGES
He told the House that in addition to GNNL, other agencies have been coming forward with claims against GINA for the period it operated under the PPP Administration, noting that soon the forensic audit report will be handed over to the police for criminal charges to be laid.

The $102M in Supplementary Provision for the settling of outstanding payment to the Caribbean Premiere League (CPL) was also brought into question. But the issue was resolved with a quick response from the outgoing Minister of Tourism Cathy Hughes.

Hughes, who now holds the portfolio of Minister of Public Telecommunications, said: “This expenditure the Honourable Minister (Ali) should have all the information…because in fact it was your Ministry, on your side of the Honourable House that left this invoice for us to pay.”
She explained that the Ministry spent months confirming that a valid contract did exist and that the payment was necessary. “After a very long and detailed investigation, we discovered that in 2014 this was not paid and this sum was indeed owing to CPL.”

After hours of scrutinizing the supplementary provisions made, the Financial Paper received the approval of the House.