THE Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has expressed disappointment with the move by the combined parliamentary parties to cut the budgetary allocations for most critical sectors in the country’s development. During a press conference at the party’s Robb Street Headquarters held yesterday, executive member and Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee registered the party’s concerns regarding the combined opposition move, which it deems as “reckless and irresponsible”.
In addition, Rohee told the media that the party is aware of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) move to create a link between the negotiations that took place at the Office of the President with their positions adopted during the consideration of the estimates.
“This linkage was clear and led to the conditions being established to the effect that movement under negotiations under Office of the President was contingent on movement at the parliament with respect to the consideration of the estimates,” he lamented.
The party believes that the move to cut the developmental programmes, such as Information Communication Technology (ICT), the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and other critical projects, is an unfortunate one.

Bearing fruit
Rohee also made reference to the negotiations that APNU entered with the government, which in his view started to bear fruit. He specifically pointed to the increase in old age pension to $10,000 as a result of dialogue between the two parties.
“We saw some positive signs at the beginning where the government and the APNU reached. Where having agreed with the Office of the President on the negotiation on a formula for supply of electricity to Linden…the first bad faith move saw the APNU  backing away from an understanding that was reached within the context of those negotiations,” Rohee added.

AFC and supporters pressure
Rohee said it was clear that there decision to move away from the agreement was as a result of pressure exhorted on them by their supporters and subsequently the AFC, claiming that they were left out of the negotiations.
“What we saw was a consolidation of a hard line position by the APNU, coming under pressure by its supporters and by the AFC resulting in a subsequently hard line position being adopted visibly these estimates that were under considerations.
He said the talks reached a critical stage when the AFC joined the negotiations. This, Rohee believes led o the joint opposition entering into the parliament waving the tyrannical scissors, hence putting a large number of young people on the breadline, leaving them in a hopeless situation. The executive member lamented that the opposition parliamentary parties went ahead with their proposed cuts, despite the convincing arguments by the government side of the House.
He noted that in the process of the patient laying out the facts and statistics and getting into the depth of the issues, the opposition came with their minds made up that since there were no success in the discussions a price had to be paid. He quoted former Finance Minister Carl Greenidge as saying that “the government has chosen that path and the cuts go along with the decision.”

Reversible talks cynicism
The party considers the talks by the opposition of reversing the cuts as a high degree of cynicism and hypocrisy, since it is pointless in reversing such a decision that has already incurred a number of damages.
“They talk about using the cuts as leverage to accomplish the objective and to force the government to come back at a later stage, redeem itself from this situation is another manifestation of the cynical approach by the opposition”, Rohee added.
The party is questioning how the social and economic impact of the lives of the workers who will lose their jobs could be reversed, which gives more weight to its argument that the opposition is sinister in its move to cut the estimates of the budget.
Meanwhile, Amerindian Affairs Minister Ms. Pauline Sukhai, who also shared the head table, believes that the opposition’s claim that they were not included in pre-budgetary talks contributed to the cuts. In addition, she said that they had linked the cuts to the accountability and transparency matter, quoting the Auditor General’s report.
She opined too that the cuts were as a result of political and personal vendetta against a few individuals. She questions why the opposition would connect the cuts with those who would be severely impacted on; since it would not coincide with the recommendations made in the Auditor General’s report.
The minister chided the opposition for reneging on its commitment to young people to create employment. She referred to the debate that was held for presidential candidates who were contesting the 2011 elections, whereby Granger promised young people to provide jobs for them once thy voted for the Coalition.  Ms. Sukhai opined that the opposition is penalising the young people since they did not get the majority votes at the November 28 polls.

Ms. Sukhai explained that the cuts will drastically affect vulnerable groups as well as the government in advancing the furtherance of Amerindian development with respect to more than 156 projects that are critical to their socio-economic development, languishing in the pipeline to be funded .
Such projects she emphasised were to bring about a transformative event in the lives of hinterland residents which mostly comprises Amerindians.  “There are more than 70,000 indigenous population in the country who will not benefit from any economic intervention outside of what was approved in the capital projects”, she explained.
With regards to the cuts for the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), she believes that it signifies that the strategy of the nation is going to be pillared on Tourism, Agriculture, ICT, Clean energy, adding that the cuts wants to see the LCDS  fail, which has made success Nationally and Internationally.
Meanwhile, another executive member of the party who also holds the portfolio of Housing and Water and acting Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali told the media that the cuts mean more than just affecting Guyana. He added that the areas that were targeted in the cuts have severe implications for International Trade and Agreements and Regional Trade and agreements.
“These cuts are not only confined within the confines and boundaries of Guyana, these cuts will be sending a strong message to our international partners, the donor community, and  it will be testing Guyana’s trustworthiness and credibility in relation to international commitments”, Ali explained.
Further, Ali explained that in the formulation of policy one should put aside personal emotions and biasness, adding that it is clear that the AFC’s move in the parliament is based on vengeance, personal ego and wasteful adventurism.
He pointed out that the opposition’s move is to create a failed state and economy.