– Greenidge tries to block supplementary financial paper
OPPOSITION parties APNU and AfC, yesterday revealed the fact that they are completely insincere about restoring the draconian cuts they inflicted on Budget 2011 so said Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh on the margins of yesterday’s sitting of the National Assembly. At yesterday’s sitting, Financial Paper No 9 of 2011 was scheduled for consideration by the Assembly. This financial paper returned to the Assembly those items that the Opposition refused to support last year. Those items were brought back after the Speaker ruled that the House could proceed with reconsidering them.
Instead of being guided by the Speaker’s ruling that the items could be reconsidered, Opposition spokesman on finance, Carl Greenidge attempted, once again, to block the Assembly from considering the items, on the grounds that the Assembly had already ruled on these items on a previous occasion.
Greenidge argued that the House could not revive discussion on a matter which had been discussed in the same session. This argument was rejected by the Speaker, who stated that the financial paper was appropriately before the House.
Following the Speaker’s rejection of Greenidge’s argument, the APNU and AFC then combined to vote against the financial paper without asking a single question on the items concerned.
Dr. Singh, in an invited comment to the Government Information Agency, stated that the Opposition’s attempt to object to the reconsideration of these items, their defiance to the Speaker’s ruling, and their eventual disapproval of the items concerned without asking a single question is ample proof that the Opposition is totally insincere about reconsidering any of the items cut from Budget 2012.
Shortly after the Opposition imposed the cuts to the 2012 budget, in response to widespread public rejection of the budget cuts, Opposition Leader, David Granger and AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan had said publicly that the cuts could be restored if the Government brought a supplementary financial paper.
Minister Singh pointed out that Greenidge’s latest move to block reconsideration of items previously considered directly contradicts this earlier position taken by the Opposition, and discloses that the Opposition has absolutely no intention of reconsidering any item previously cut.

What is even more astonishing, Minister Singh pointed out, is the fact that the Opposition refused to ask even a single question on the items resubmitted. This fact alone discloses that the Opposition has no interest in the merits of the items and issues, but instead will use their tyrannical majority of one even in voting against items that are in the national interest.