A PARTNERSHIP for National Unity (APNUs) Shadow Minister of Health, Dr George Norton, on day two of the Budget debates on Wednesday last, has been accused of resorting to playing a race card during his presentation to the 2013 Budget debate, forcing an intervention by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, to strike out the comments from the Parliamentary records.

The Speaker was forced to review the comment’s transcript and audio overnight, after which he ruled yesterday that the comments made by Norton did in fact border on racial lines.
Dr Norton, in his presentation to the House, had attempted to chastise the process regarding the Specialty Hospital being constructed at Turkeyen.
Dr Norton suggested that Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, was at pains to point out all of the names of the Principals of the Company awarded the site preparation contract, in an attempt to suggest that the contract had been awarded to persons of Afro-descent.
This statement by Norton was deemed as an attempt to whip up sympathy among a particular ethnic section of the Guyanese society.
Speaker Trotman said that in his view, the comments were uncalled for and that they do raise a spectre of, or suggestion that a Member of the House practices racism.
This he said was a clear violation of the Standing Orders of the National Assembly and as such should be struck from the records.
The statement by Dr Norton prompted Prime Minister Samuel Hinds to take the floor to reiterate that the administration does not award contracts, but rather it is awarded following a competitive bidding process.
Dr Norton’s comment came shortly after the substantive minister, Ramsaran, who in his presentation to the debate, sought to impress that “this budget has much for many.”

Minister Ramsaran told the House that the health sector continues to achieve, “but we still have significant challenges.”
The minister conceded that in recent times, there have been outbreaks in certain areas or maternal deaths in other areas, and reiterated “yes, there are challenges, but there have been significant gains.”
Dr Ramsaran said that even as the shadow Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge, sought to lay a foundation to reject the budget, many of the presentations from the opposition benches clearly illustrates a lack of understanding of the issues at hand.
The health minister said that the current situation regarding the fate of the national expenditures in the hands of the combined opposition is akin to that off a child with a match.
“Some of the persons calling for cuts did not seem to understand the content of some of their own discussion…example on the specialty hospital.”
In expanding his analogy, the minister said that while a match is a useful thing, “in the hands of a child unschooled and unaccustomed to systems, it can do damage.”
He said that while several of the presentations from the opposition benches were passionate, they lacked depth and demonstrated a lack of understanding.
The minister said that it may be an indictment on the part of the administration in not getting the messages across to the opposition representatives, saying that many of the issues, such as the ones raised with the Specialty Hospital, were raised during the 2012 Budget debate had been thoroughly explained.
Dr Ramsaran also responded to APNUs, Annette Ferguson, who had raised questions over payments made for the Specialty Hospital; and according to Dr Ramsaran, there may be a need for the Finance Ministry to edify members of the opposition on the processes involved in the expenditure of money.
The minister said that it is not automatic for monies to be paid over to a contractor as a result of an allocation, but rather payments are made for measured works done.
This, he said, is the case with the Specialty Hospital; and he said that the contractor has only been paid for works completed thus far.