– says Finance Minister.

MINISTER of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh is calling on leader of the Opposition, David Granger to assert his authority and have his finance spokesperson, Carl Greenidge, respond to the invitation by the Minister to meet for discussions the 2014 Budget.

This call by the minister is being made at a time when Kaieteur News reported that government has not consulted with the opposition in preparation of the 2014 budget.

“This is a repeat of history that occurred just a year ago,” said the Minister.
During budget preparations for 2013, Mr. Greenidge was invited to attend the meetings in the capacity of Shadow Finance Minister. Instead of attending the meetings he disappeared overseas for an extended period and made himself unavailable for consultations.

“What was worse last year,” says Singh, “is that no one in the Opposition appeared able to shed light on Mr. Greenidge’s whereabouts.”
Mr. Granger is claiming that government has not consulted with the Opposition with regard to Budget 2014, two months before it is expected to be presented to Parliament. However Singh in a press release issued on Saturday called out the Opposition for making a false accusation. The Minister noted that as recent as January 13, 2014 an email was sent, addressed to Mr. Greenidge asking for him to suggest a date and time for the government and opposition teams to meet. The email was also copied to David Granger, Lance Carberry, Khemraj Ramjattan, Dr. Roger Luncheon and Ms. Gail Teixeira.
The statement also noted that the email to Greenidge also contained copies of documents to be discussed. “To date my invitation has been met with stony silence by Granger and Greenidge,” noted the minister’s statement.
Singh is now calling on the Opposition Leader to assert his authority and instruct Mr. Greenidge to respond to the invitation for budget consultations.
“If Mr. Greenidge is unavailable to participate in budget talks this year, as he was last year, he should do the decent thing and let the Leader of the Opposition appoint someone else to lead the Opposition team to the Budget talks 2014,” the Finance Minister asserts.
The statement issued on Saturday also noted that the invitation issued a week ago, was not the first of its kind issued to the Opposition to discuss the 2014 Budget. According to the Ministry of Finance, a Government team has already initiated discussions with the Opposition in the latter part of 2013 and is looking forward to continued cooperation on the issue as preparations windup for the March 2014 budget deadline.