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“Guyana is a food secure country. Gold and all these things don’t matter if our people can’t feed themselves. So agriculture is dramatically significant in this country, indispensible. Therefore, whenever we come to the Parliament with our budget, we would expect absolute and unequivocal support from every Member of Parliament,” he asserted.
The minister related that agriculture is the main vehicle that has brought Guyana out of being a least-developing, highly-indebted country to being a high, low-middle-income country. He added that no responsible member of Parliament would stand in the way of the agriculture budget being passed.
“The agriculture budget not being passed is not only going to affect the Government of Guyana, but will cause major hardship on every family in this country…. So it will be sheer irresponsibility to not pass this budget,” he said.
Dr Ramsammy further emphasised that any MP who would like to clear up any issue he/she may have should consult him. He noted that he has always had an open-door policy where this is concerned.
He noted that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, has reached out to him for information, every bit of which has been provided, even down to the most sensitive of documents.
He disclosed that one project which seems to be of particular concern to Dr Roopnaraine is the Hope Canal Northern Relief Channel project. However, he explained that Dr. Roopnaraine has all the available information pertaining to this project.
Minister Ramsammy acknowledged that the Hope Canal project has had many problems, some of which had to do with the sloth of the contractors, while others were unforeseen problems, such as issues with certain materials.
He advised that it is crucial that the four components of this project be completed by the extended deadline of August 31, and said he would be meeting with the contractors, sometime before he goes to defend the budget in the National Assembly on Monday, to caution them that the ministry is going to implement liability measures if the works are not completed within the specified time.
“I don’t believe the problems we have had should be reason to punish the people…. You cannot cut the budget and punish the ordinary people of Guyana, and people need to look at that…. So if they want me to put certain things in place that are reasonable, we will do so; but I’m urging them to don’t be spiteful and petty, because not voting for the budget will be pettiness and vindictiveness,” he lamented.
Dr Ramsammy said that, in his budget speech, Dr. Roopnaraine had said he wanted a breakdown of the $7.1B expended on drainage and irrigation last year. He said he is willing to provide this information, and that he is in the process of preparing a breakdown of the expenditure for last year. He said he would not only answer the opposition orally, “so they can ask me follow-up questions”, but he would also give that breakdown to Dr. Roopnaraine before the National Assembly begins consideration of the estimates of the agriculture budget.
The minister revealed that Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, had expressed concern over a particular project — the 14 drainage pumps that are being acquired through a line of credit from India.
He noted that Ramjattan is concerned particularly about whether the contract is being executed on a timely basis. He said he would provide Ramjattan with all the timelines pertaining to that project.
Dr Ramsammy explained that the contract was supposed to come to an end on March 31, but while much of the contract has been completed before that date, some aspects were not completed; and for that reason, the Agriculture Ministry has given the contractor a one-month extension to the end of April.
He related that the relevant information was given to Ramjattan, who said that once it can be verified, he should have no problem approving that part of the budget.
“I don’t know that there are other matters. I can only go with what was raised with me, and since these seem to be the major matters, I would expect that the agriculture budget should have no problem. When you look at the overall thing, there is no reason not to pass the agriculture budget,” he said.
