Budget debate…
THE presentation and debate on it addressed the current concerns of Guyanese and the 2010 Budget would contribute to laying the groundwork for the consolidation of the previous gains and implementation of the forward looking strategies of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration.
This pronouncement was made yesterday by Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon at his weekly post-Cabinet press conference in Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.
“The 2010 budget debate is over. In that context, Cabinet commended the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, for his presentations and his stewardship of the process and, particularly, the all round support that he garnered from his PPP/C Members of Parliament and Cabinet colleagues during the debate,” he said.
Minister Singh presented the largest ever budget, of $142.8 billion, in the National Assembly under the theme ‘Consolidate, Transform, Sustain’.
Luncheon, also the Cabinet Secretary, noted that consideration of the estimates of revenue and expenditure is now taking place in the Committee of Supply of the House and is planned to extend over three days.
“It is during the consideration of the estimates that sector ministers would secure approval for their sectoral appropriations,” he reminded.
Luncheon observed that, during the hearings, the public sector investment programme always comes under scrutiny as the budget proposals are costed and the approval for expenditures sought.
Speaking for Cabinet, he said: “The view was that during the budget debate, the reactions and the contributions of the Parliamentary Opposition were deemed to have been superficial, thoughtless and ill-considered.”
Luncheon said passage of the Appropriation Bill at the end of the sitting of the Committee of Supply will see “an energised administration working zealously to implement the duly appointed plans and programmes.”
Responding to questions about the contributions of the Opposition to the debate, he said: “I think what Cabinet was more concerned about was the failure, by the Opposition, to utilise the opportunity that the budget presentation provided to address issues affecting the Guyanese people.”
Luncheon said there were major issues, many of them identified in Minister Singh’s presentation.
“I think a fair assessment of the contributions by the Opposition can’t help but lead us to conclusions about their being superficial and their resort to the extraneous. I think, as the President said, nitpicking, all to the detriment of Guyanese and the benefit that a well-researched and a sound debate would have provided,” he stated.
According to him: “Those issues and the interventions proposed and identified by the Minister in the budget speech laid the basis for that type of engagement and it is unfortunate that, at the end of the budget debate, that opportunity was not utilised, it was not seized by the Opposition.”