THE pettiness must end. We must grow up and do the nation’s business,” was the clarion call by Peoples Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C), Member of Parliament, Reverend Kwame Gilbert.

Gilbert, who delivered his presentation to the debates on the National expenditures yesterday, told the House that the evidence of growth in Guyana is everywhere and that the records speak for itself.
According to Gilbert, while the opposition is expected to hold the Government’s proverbial feet to the coals in a bid to ensure transparency and accountability, “people also expect the opposition to be reasonable and responsible.”
Gilbert said that there comes a time when political posturing should end and “working in the national interest should begin.”
The Reverend, in his debate presentation, said it is not by accident that the national economy was preserved from the impact of the global financial contagion that affected the world, when economies that were strong teetered on the edge of collapse.
“It was not by accident our economy was insulated,” said Gilbert and suggested that Guyana’s development should be a manifestation of dedicated service and cooperation, especially by the Members in the hallowed chambers.
“The sooner we recognise that what holds us together is greater than what divides us, we would carve for ourselves a path that when many of us would have gone on, the wellbeing of our nation would be secure,” he posited.
According to him, it is a fact that today more Guyanese, particularly young people, have become home owners.
Gilbert told the House that over the past six years, home ownership has skyrocketed to a point higher than it has ever been prior.
The national healthcare programme, according to Gilbert, “is at the best it has ever been in the country’s history.”
This government, he says, has continued to invest both in human and infrastructural development in the health sector and “with the Specialty Hospital, the best is yet to come.”
The MP in his budget presentation also espoused that the “surest way to end poverty is to invest in a nation’s education…so the focus is on sustaining and accelerating the gains for all Guyanese people.”
He said, too, that the importance the government has paid to poverty alleviation is evident in the allocation made to the education sector, and drew reference to several countries around the world including the US, among others, each allocating less than 10 per cent of their annual expenditure for education.
Guyana he said has allocated 14 per cent of its expenditure to the education sector, the largest bloc allotted for any of the sectors
“What is at stake,” questioned Gilbert, and in an appeal to the Combined Opposition said that “cutting the budget will not just affect 32 persons (AFC/APNU) in this House, it will affect the entire nation and that is what is at stake.”
According to Reverend Gilbert, what has been presented is a roadmap for the nation, one that should be supported.