– CJIA expansion, GPL subsidy, the Specialty Hospital, LCDS programme, Sports Fund, Citizen Security, Amaila Falls, EBD Road, GINA, NCN, Industrial Training all identified for the scissors
‘To target people like this is wicked and unacceptable’
– says Dr Ramsammy

CONSIDERATION of the estimates of the 2013 Budget will commence in Parliament tomorrow, and the Alliance For Change (AFC) has formally submitted to the House, cuts it proposes to make to those estimates, which will effectively place more than 120,000 acres of cultivated land, along with residential areas, under risk of flooding.
Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, during an emergency press conference yesterday, came out in open condemnation of AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan’s proposed cuts to the budget, calling them “wicked and unacceptable.”
The AFC proposals, totalling approximately $40B, have targeted the 14 pumps identified for placement countrywide as part of emergency measures against flooding. The Agriculture Minister disclosed that at least 60,000 acres of cultivated lands are now being threatened, along with an equal amount of land categorised as residential areas, inclusive of the recently constructed La Parfaite Harmonie, one of the largest housing schemes made operational by Government.
In Ramjattan’s official notice, a number of other projects are slated for significant slashing, including millions of dollars allocated to pay wages and salaries to employees at the Office of the President (OP); the Ministry of Local Government; the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security; and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) among other important entities.

SLASHER GONE CRAZY
The AFC has proposed to slash by almost half ($200M) the salaries and several other current expenses of the Office of the President (OP), inclusive of security services.
The Ministry of Finance staff salaries have been identified for an AFC $200M reduction via the chopping block; while a slash of salaries for employees contracted by the Local Government Ministry would leave them with only 50% of what is actually needed to properly remunerate them.
The Public Works Ministry’s allocation of $384M for staff wages and salaries is to undergo cuts of $355M should the AFC have its way.
The Guyana Elections Commission is slated for similarly unfavourable treatment, in that the AFC proposes to cut the GECOM allocations for local travel and subsistence, security services, and payment of wages and salaries by several hundred million dollars.
Ramjattan and the AFC also propose to slash every dollar in subventions allocated for the National Communications Network (NCN) and the Government Information Agency (GINA).
GINA had been allocated approximately $135.8M for its operations in 2013, and the AFC proposes to reduce that amount to zero; while the same fate obtains for the $81M subvention that had been identified for NCN.
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport could also see the AFC trimming from the budget at least $100M of its allocation for 2013, even though that money has been allocated by the Finance Ministry for the Sports and Art Development Fund.
The AFC has also threatened to deny the Board of Industrial Training its entire allocation of $224M.
While there has been a $10.2-billion-dollar transfer of funds announced for the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) under the Office of the Prime Minister, the AFC has signaled its intention to reduce that amount by more than $6.2B.
Government speakers to the general policy debate in the House over the preceding two weeks had indicated that the money earmarked for GPL is meant to stave off any possible increase in tariffs that would be required to be met by consumers.
The globally recognized and lauded Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) programme, which had been the largest victim of the 2012 cuts is, again this year, identified for repetitive treatment, with the AFC looking to remove $19B of the $20B allocated, reducing a progressive and innovative programme – one of the brainchild projects of former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo –  to  $1B.
Construction of several critical roads has also been identified for slashing, inclusive of the one required for construction of the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric project. According to the proposals set out by Ramjattan, of the $2.3B earmarked for completion of the access road, paving the way for start of construction of the hydro-power plant at Amaila Falls, $1B will be slashed from it.
The East Bank Improvement Project, wherein that critical artery would be upgraded, has also been identified for reduction of allocation by more than half of a billion dollars.
Meanwhile, expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport at Timehri, one of the flagship projects for the nation, has had its entire $5.3B allocation reduced in Ramjattan’s proposals to zero.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has, also, not been spared the proverbial surgeon’s knife. Allocations for its Citizen Security Programme have been slashed by half a billion dollars; while the more than $1.2B identified for construction of the Specialty Hospital at Liliendaal has also been decapitated.
Moreover, the AFC has proposed in its cuts that capital works to be undertaken by the National Drainage & Irrigation Authority (NDIA) be reduced from the $1.4B allocated to $586M. This, according to Dr Ramsammy, represents an almost sixty percent slash in monies allocated for the completion of the Hope Canal and the supply of the 14 pumps.

EMERGENCY
Dr Ramsammy told reporters, yesterday, that as Minister of Agriculture, and further, as a citizen of Guyana, “I find this (overall budget cut) as repulsive. It is an abominable act to target pumps that are absolutely required not only for the development of our country, but to promote better standard of living to our people…To target people like this is wicked and unacceptable.”
Dr Ramsammy further said: “Whatever problems they have with me or (with the) Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) should not be extended to penalise the ordinary people.”
In addressing the proposed cuts specifically under the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Minister Dr Ramsammy said that while the pumps have not been specifically identified in the proposal, the amount indicated by Ramjattan speaks specifically to the amount in the line of credit from the Indian Export/Import (Exim) Bank under which the pumps are being purchased.
Dr Ramsammy also pointed out that several of the pumps along with their components have all been supplied to Guyana, while the majority of the components for the remaining pieces of equipment are also in Guyana.
The contract for acquisition of the pumps had been signed in March 2012, and had been granted an extension to the end of this month for completion. The contract for the pumps, Dr Ramsammy explained, is for the design and fabrication of the pieces of equipment. He reminded that they are not the average household pumps, which can be picked off the shelves in stores. “They have to be designed and fabricated,” Dr Ramsammy said, adding that close to $200M has already been paid as part of the contract.
Dr Ramsammy indicated also that two engineers, one from the Agriculture Ministry and another from the local private sector, have been preparing to depart Guyana for India by April 22, to conduct final inspection of the pieces of equipment before they are shipped to Guyana.
In an appeal to the combined opposition, Dr Ramsammy said: “I want to urge AFC and APNU that they ought to be a little more sensitive to the needs of our people.”
Dr Ramsammy also told media operatives that on numerous occasions he had invited both Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, the APNU Shadow Minister of Agriculture, and AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan to address concerns they might have with regard to operations of the Agriculture Ministry, and while the APNU representative would have availed himself, the same could not be said for Ramjattan.
The Minister also reminded that government has commenced building the several pump stations required for the pieces of equipment, and the minister questioned the point of building pump stations if the allocations for the required pumps are going to be cut.
“I am utterly flabbergasted, disgusted and disappointed that such a critical project is being threatened,” he declared.