HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon has disclosed that cabinet will be going to the National Assembly to increase budget expenditure in the social sector so as to accommodate the increased prices government now has to pay to acquire original textbooks for schools.

“We cannot procure the same volume and as a consequence one can anticipate that we will be going to the budget, going to the National Assembly for ramping up social sector expenditure to maintain the same level of coverage in the education sector, so far as textbooks and that kind of material is required,” he stated.
Luncheon made this revelation at his weekly post-cabinet media briefing last Wednesday at the Office of the President on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.
He pointed out that the unit cost has increased in the face of the high court ruling that essentially prevented a resort to the photocopied versions, even with the “most generous price cutting concessions” by publishers and others.
The Cabinet Secretary had earlier disclosed that no objections have been granted for the procurement of some textbooks for the Ministry of Education at a cost of US $383,000 or approximately Guyana $76.6M.
However, when a reporter enquired whether this amount would be sufficient to acquire an adequate supply of books, he clarified that this amount is just for a single procurement and not an aggregate procurement.
Nevertheless, he reiterated that now that government has to purchase original textbooks, it will cost them more than was budgeted for.
“Even with those concessionary prices that we obtained for these original texts, it still exceeds the unit cost of a photocopied version,” Dr Luncheon stressed.
He further emphasized that they will have to go back to the budget to get additional funding to increase spending in the social sector if the same level of coverage is to be maintained.