IN his budget address to the Parliament of Guyana, the AFC MP from Region 6, Honourable Veerasammy Ramayah indicated that the AFC will not support the capital budget and will seek to vote against the $75B capital budget. Other AFC MPs and APNU MPs have expressed similar sentiments.
As an MP and as one who has responsibility for agriculture, I am disappointed at the position MP Ramayah and the others have taken. I, unfortunately, also heard Mr. Moses Nagamootoo and others saying the same thing. I am hopeful that this is not the position of the AFC or APNU.I reject the position of the AFC and APNU MPs and I would hope the AFC and APNU will consider their position very clearly.

1. The capital projects are usually financed through arrangements with international financial institutions (such as the IADB, World Bank, CDC, etc. and donor countries or organizations). These capital projects are projects that our international partners and Guyana have agreed to and the financing are targeted. Such resources cannot be directed away from the projects, as the Opposition MPs want us to do. Such funding cannot be utilized to support salary increases, pay pensions etc. If we do not want to proceed with the projects, the funding arrangements are terminated.

2. The AFC MPs must understand that the capital budget is to ensure that much needed infrastructural projects are supported. Do we need to build roads such as the Black Bush Polder and the East Bank Berbice Road, the Relief Channel at Hope, the Relief Channel for Johanna, Black Bush Polder, the Relief Channel at Canal Polder? Do we need to put fixed-site drainage pumps at Rose Hall, Albion, Allness, Black Bush Polder, Windsor Forest etc.? Do we need to construct farm-to-market roads? Do we need to extend our highways? Do we need more transmission lines to take electricity to those communities without electricity? Do we need to build schools? Do we need to build hospitals and health centers? Do we need to construct community roads? Do we need to prepare more housing schemes? Do we need to open up more lands for agriculture?

My answer is a resounding yes. We need these and others of the Capital Projects that the $75B will pay for. I ask MPs Veerasammy Ramayah, Moses Nagamootoo, Carl Greenidge, Basil Williams, Trevor Williams, Cathy Hughes and all the others, from APNU and AFC to tell the people they will not support these projects and would rather Guyana never have access to these funds.

3. The Opposition must understand that these projects create jobs and by not supporting the capital investment, these jobs are threatened. On the one hand, these MPs claim we must create more jobs. On the other hand they want to vote against job-creation that results from these projects. But we are not unaware of the motivation behind the rejection – it is to ensure they suffocate development in our country to help them gain power. While the Opposition pursues actions to suffocate development to satisfy their own interest and their hunger for power, the PPP/C will continue to promote the interest of our country by building our infrastructure and creating the environment to further promote development and create jobs.

This in no way should detract from the need for rigid and robust monitoring and evaluation to ensure value-for-money. The Government of Guyana continues to be concerned over the lateness of work and the quality of work and we will continue to improve systems to ensure more on-time delivery of work and higher quality of work. President Ramotar has already made it clear to Parliament and to the Cabinet that he wants greater scrutiny of contracts.

4. Much of the capital projects provide opportunities for Guyanese private sector. When the PPP/C Government started in October 1992, there were few private sector construction firms owned by and operating in Guyana. Today, we have many Guyanese-owned construction firms operating in Guyana. We do not deny that we need to strengthen further the tendering process. We concede that contractors have not been delivering the projects on time and many of the projects have experienced considerable delays. We concede too that the quality of work by some of the contractors is questionable. The Government of Guyana will continue our efforts to ensure value-for-money spent. But we are determined to build the private sector capacity in Guyana.

We reject the Opposition portrayal of the private sector as only a greed machine, only interested in stealing as much as they can. We unequivocally reject this position.

5. President Ramotar has been on record insisting that the National Procurement and Tender Board must be more rigid in evaluating tenders and that contracts must be stricter in getting contractors to deliver projects on time and meet specified quality.

6. The PPP/C Government ensured that the Constitution makes provision for a Procurement Commission to be established. The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament failed to submit nominees for the appointment of the members of this committee. We now have an agreement between the leaders of the political parties to discuss this issue and resolve it early. I urge that there be political agreements that will allow the establishment of the Procurement Commission as soon as possible.

7. The PPP/C Government itself has been expressing dissatisfaction relating to many of the concerns highlighted by the Opposition. Some of the concerns highlighted by the Opposition have been echoed by the Government itself. While we are addressing these concerns, we must also continue to create employment opportunities, build our infrastructure and support economic development.

The Guyana Government has adopted an approach of balancing budgetary allocation to support the economic development of Guyana, while simultaneously improving the social welfare needs of the people. We reject the approach which commits our budgetary allocation to only economic development or only to social welfare needs.

Thus, we will recognize that almost 35% of the budget already is committed to the social sector to support the social welfare needs of the people. We must continue to build health, education and other social services to ensure our people can develop their potential. But we must continue to also develop our infrastructure to support both the economic needs and the social welfare needs of our people.