– Finance Minister
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration has, throughout the years, demonstrated prudence in its management of resources and in ensuring that there is accountability and proper use of financial and other resources to maximise benefits.
Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh expressed these sentiments during the closing session of the debate of the 2010 National Budget in the National Assembly Monday evening. The Minister, commenting on prudence in Government, stated that it is a distinguishing hallmark of the Government in the execution of its activities.
“If we were to illustrate the issue of prudence in Government, there would be no better example than the example of Government expenditure on overseas travel,” Minister Singh said, noting that there were statements by the Alliance for Change that expenditure on overseas travel of the President amounted to $1B.
“With all of the passage of time, our government has continued to contain the level of expenditure on overseas travel so that the nominal expenditure that we incur is marginally over what was being incurred nearly 20 years ago,” Minister Singh said.
The Minister highlighted instances when the People’s National Congress, during the time that the party held the highest seat in Guyana, the then Head of State would be accompanied by dozens of persons on official visits which amounted to significant sums of money.
The Finance Minister stated that last year’s expenditure on overseas travel for the entire Government amounted to $218M, which he compared to the $3B expended on drugs and medical supplies for the health sector and $540M budget of the Guyana Defence Force. The Minister also noted that in 1992, the proposed budget for international travel was $140M compared to $126M allocated to the health sector and $7M allocated to the GDF.
Referring to travel in the past, the Minister stated that in 2002, Guyana attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Australia with a delegation which comprised the President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Political Advisor to the President, High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and Director General of Iwokrama amounting to a total of five persons.
The last time the Commonwealth meeting was held in Australia was in 1981, the Minister said that the delegation under the PNC amounted to a total of 44 persons. The delegation then included the President and the First Lady, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General and his wife, the Minister of Health and his wife, the HPS, Confidential Secretary to the President, Assistant to the Confidential Secretary  to the President, Advisor to President, Chief Political Advisor, an Assistant Economic Advisor, one Political Assistant, the High Commissioner to London,  two officers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two Presidential Assistants, the ADC to the President, six staff officers, four media team and one other staff from the Permanent Mission in New York, which amounted to 31 and 14 crew members.
Minister Singh further stated that in order to transport the 44 persons, an aircraft was chartered at a cost of US $270,000. This, the Minister said, was a pattern of behaviour since the delegation to the 1975 Heads of Government meeting in Jamaica comprised the Prime Minister and wife, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and wife,  the Minister of Finance and wife, the Minister of Agriculture and wife, and others, including 17 persons to deliver a cultural presentation.
“As a country, we must never forget our history, nor must we be unaware of the sordid place from which we have come; only then would we fully appreciate the fullness of the distance we have travelled and the value of the circumstances in which we now find ourselves,” Minister Singh said, noting that the Government’s track record would bear scrutiny.