– Even though more than a hundred public service employees left on the breadline
A PARTNERSHIP for National Unity (APNU) said, yesterday, that its support for the cuts to the 2012 National Budget is not intended to make people lose jobs. Consequently, the party will be fanning out to various parts of the country to meet with residents, in an attempt to explain what, exactly, was the meaning of its action in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
The announcement was made at a media briefing in APNU’s Regent Road, Georgetown headquarters.
In a statement, APNU said the Tenth Parliament offered Guyana lawmakers the opportunity of making history and, on Wednesday, April 25, the electorate only saw a glimpse of what the composition could mean.
The statement referred to the slash in the budgetary allocations for several State agencies and programmes, including the provision of only one dollar each to the Government Information Agency (GINA) and the National Communications Network (NCN).
APNU maintained that the move was not to, directly, penalise citizens and Government workers. It was to stop the funding that Government had been using to employ People’s Progressive Party (PPP) activists, the statement said.
Asked how APNU intends to ensure that the reductions are what they were voted for and that the decision of the Legislature is not honoured in the breach, with monies taken from the Consolidated Fund to prop up the affected agencies, the Finance Spokesman, Mr. Carl Greenidge said there is so much that the Parliament could do.
He said, while they need to remain alert, intense attention and scrutiny will be placed on financial papers coming to the House.
According to Greenidge, the Public Accounts Committee and the Auditor General are the bodies tasked with investigating cases where the wishes of the Parliament on financial matters are not followed.