EARLY Thursday morning, the National Assembly examined and approved Supplementary Financial Paper No. 2 of 2012, which contained additional financial inflows for four ministries. The Opposition however, rejected the sum of $429M in additional finances that were sought for the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Citizen Security Programme (CSP). The agencies which the House approved additional financial inflows for are as follows; Ministry of Education- Education Delivery- $856M for the Education for all Fast Track initiative- EFA-FTI; Ministry of Housing and Water- Housing and Water-$500M for the Community Roads Improvement Project (CRIP), $331.5M for the Georgetown Sanitation Improvement Programme and $207.2M for water supply rehabilitation in Linden; Ministry of Health- Regional and Clinical Services-$134M for additional works on warehouse, $146M for the Specialty Hospital Project and Ministry of Legal Affairs- Main Office-$319M for the Justice Improvement Programme; Ministry of Public Works-$84.7M for additional operational expenses under Admin and Management and $4.8M for the Georgetown-Lethem Road; and Ministry of Agriculture-Crops & Livestock Support Service-$132.5M for the Agriculture Export Diversification Project.

Ministry of Education
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand successfully steered the additional inflows to her ministry after being grilled by the Opposition Members of Parliament.
Responding to Opposition MP, Desmond Trotman’s question of why the additional sum of $242M was being sought for the School Feeding Programme, Minister Manickchand informed the House that the project was a foreign funded one that was scheduled to end in October; however, based on a report which showed positive feedback of the project, the Finance Minister successfully lobbied to have the project extended until December.
Opposition Chief Whip, Amna Ally asked the purpose of the $15M Remote Areas Incentives, to which the minister informed that it will be disbursed to 913 remote areas’ teachers.
Minister Manickchand, in response to Opposition MP, Dawn Hastings’ question as to whether or not text books will be supplied, specifically to the Upper Mazaruni area, in time for September, indicated that the ministry has a plan in place which has been successful for the past three school terms, which will be utilised to ensure schools that would have requested text books, receive same, either before the first day of school or by the end of the first week.

Ministry of Housing and Water
Opposition MP, Joseph Harmon requested Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali to indicate the initial sums approved and what is currently being sought for the seven Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and the contractor.
Minister Ali’s response is as follows: for Bath-Woodley Park- the initial sum is $187.9M; with $79M being sought; (B&J Civil Works);  Tuschen-Uitvlugt $162.2M is the original sum with $46.1M asked for; (Dipcon Engineering); Rosignol-Zeelust-$130.6M, with $44.6M being sought (B& J Civil Works); Unity-Vereeniging -$121M with $54.1M being asked for ( H. Nauth & Sons); Stewartville-Cornelia Ida – $117.8M with $29.2M  being sought (Dipcon Engineering); Enmore-Hope $152.8M with $85.2M more being asked for (Courtney Benn Contracting Services); Industry-Plaisance B – $133M with $10M more sought (Courtney Benn Contracting Services); and Industry-Plaisance B – $152.7M with $61.2M sought ( Dipcon engineering) .
Minister Ali also added that the CRIP is funded by the Caribbean Development Bank via a loan totalling US$18.7M, and an original duration period of 43 months.
“To date we are two years away from the loan completion of the project and we have completed 70% of the work in 18 months…the project is advancing beyond what was projected…this means that government would save more than $10M in commitment fees as the supplementary provision being sought will be reduced by $500M to $1.2B…that is as a result of efficient project management and execution,” Minister Ali said.
He also explained that the works in the Stewartville-Cornelia Ida NDC are completed, except for two bridges which the addition will cover, while the other payments being sought are for the retention fee to the contractors as they are ahead of the project and will be soon completing the project.
Asked about the quality of the roads, Minister Ali said that every community was given a copy of the contract and bills, so that they can be a part of the monitoring of the project, which process was very effective. Additionally, it has been observed for the Rosignol-Zeelust area that drainage for the roads poses a problem; as such corrective measures are being sought.

Ministry of Health
The allocation of $146M being sought as additional sum required to meet mobilisation for the construction of the Specialty Hospital raised eyebrows; however, former Minister of Health, who now has responsibility for the Agriculture Ministry, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, filling in for the current Health Minister, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, informed the House that this figure was an estimated one for the advancing of the works.
He added that from the bids received to commence the construction of the hospital, examining the lowest to the highest, the budgeted allocation of $672M was not enough to meet the usual 20% advance for the commencement of the project.

Ministry of Legal Affairs
The allocation of $69.2M for backlog reduction attracted attention; however Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General, Anil Nandlall informed the House that the allocation will be utilised to give additional incentives to judges for the disposal of backlog cases.

Ministry of Public Works
Grilled on the additional sums being sought, Minister of Public Works, Robeson Benn indicated that the additional $84.7M was being sought to meet the normal operating expenses of the Ministry’s Works Services Group. He indicated that the office was recently upgraded which saw a re-classification of workers and key vacancies being filled.