THE Alliance for Change (AFC) has set its sight clearly on the $17.5B allocation to the Guyana Security Sector, as was adumbrated by its Member of Parliament, Dr. Veerasaamy Ramaya yesterday, as he made his presentation to the 2013 Budget Debate.

He told the House that the AFC will not in any way support the allocations, as long as the serving Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, remains at the helm of the security sector.
“I cannot see how the House can pass the estimates in the current form without adjustments,” said the AFC Member, who also suggested that the more than $16B pumped into the sector in the previous year did not yield the desired results.
Dr. Ramaya suggested that there is still fear and violence gripping the nation and despite the significant expenditure, “we throw good money after a malfunctioning security system.”
He said that the ministry has failed the men and women and for the AFC to support the allocation, “the minister has to go.”
The MP said that the $17.5B will be squandered on the security services.
He said that the AFC wants to work  constructively with a capable Minister of Home Affairs, “but we cannot, with a clear conscience, be aware of the failings of this minister and still put $17B at his disposal.”
He suggested too that the AFC may be inclined to only approve 56 per cent of the $208.8B, and drew reference to what he called the failed Skeldon Sugar factory.
He suggested that for the more than $40B spent on the factory, it has only been able to produce at a 56 per cent capacity.
In another attack on Chinese workers in Guyana, the AFC representative told the House that an apprentice company was chosen.
The MP took a swipe at Head of State Donald Ramotar in his presentation also, and suggested that the then member of the GuySuco Board had been a part of selecting the Chinese company.
He suggested that it was the Chinese contractor that built the factory, along with the directors who are responsible for the state of the sugar industry, as against the lamentations by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh who had blamed less than favourable sugar production on adverse weather and the plethora of industrial strike actions.
“They come for $208.8B, how about we giving them 56 per cent,” said Dr. Ramaya.
In his continued tirade against the administration, Dr. Ramaya said that “slavery has come back to the country in the sugar industry.”
According to the AFC member “We have to trim this budget of its excesses,” and posits that the 2013 Budget lacks vision, is heavy on words, and weak on delivery.