HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday, at his weekly post-Cabinet briefing, told media operatives that the final sitting of the National Assembly saw the combined parliamentary opposition showing its hand, with the manner in which they dealt with the financial papers brought by government, seeking a restoration of items that were reduced to $1, and additional inflows for the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Citizen Security Programme. He added that the unusual sitting that lasted into the wee hours of the morning saw the ominous walk-out phenomenon of the opposition starting again, when they resorted to that step when Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee was addressing the House.
“That sitting also revealed more about the mind-set of the opposition, specifically this time with their treatment of the financial papers…their passion however, ran wild as before with funding for Office of the President expenditure and Ministry of Finance,” Dr. Luncheon said.
He explained that this decision was again made to vote down such financial requests in light of the Chief Justice’s ruling, the constitutional provision which expressly provides for supplementary papers for a restoration, and the Leader of the Opposition David Granger, who declared that supplementary provision would be a possible solution to the cuts made to the budget in late April.
“The media and the Guyana Human Rights Association were loud with their usual silence…maybe October 9, 2012, and thereafter will bring better days to this National Assembly,” Dr Luncheon opined.
Dr. Luncheon said that credit should not be given to the combined parliamentary opposition, who could not argue for electricity subsidies being continued in Linden and vote to deny GPL funds clearly identified for subsidies elsewhere in the grid, nor could they have voted against GRIF funding in the face of the Amerindian people and their voices of resentment.
The National Assembly will not be meeting as parliament’s recess commenced on August 10 and sittings would resume on October 9, 2012.
The August 9 sitting of parliament saw Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh tabling Supplementary Financial Papers 1 and 2 of 2012, seeking a restoration of the sums that were removed from the Budget by the joint parliamentary opposition in April, and additional financial inflows for the execution of works in various sectors.
While some of the items from both financial papers were restored, expenditure under the Office of the President and the Ministry of Finance were still not approved.
Additionally, the combined opposition voted down additional inflows of $400M for the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Citizen Security Programme, citing their displeasure with Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee as the reason behind the latter disapproval.