ATTORNEY General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, has said the Government has been left in a precarious legal position by the decision of the combined opposition to cut the budgetary allocation for the specialty hospital.
In a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) press conference held at Freedom House yesterday, the minister pointed out that the opposition parties had supported the initiative of the specialty hospital last year, but chose to withdraw that support this year.
He explained that the Government had assumed that parliamentary opposition parties would have continued supporting the project, and had, as such, proceeded to conclude financial arrangements with contractors in India and the Exim Bank of India with regard to the specialty hospital.
“We are now in a precarious legal position, where we have a binding contract with the contractor. We have, in fact, endorsed the disbursement of an advance payment towards this project to a contractor to the tune of some US$3M., and now we are in this extremely invidious legal position, where we are unable to discharge the contractual obligations which devolve upon us under this contract,” he disclosed.
That aside, the minister noted the blow being delivered to the nation with the Guyanese people being denied this type of facility. He said this must be taken against the background of repeated allegations made by the opposition that the Government is uncaring and not addressing the concerns of the Guyanese poor people.
He emphasised that the specialty hospital is an initiative intended to benefit the health of the nation in the most fundamental way, and would allow health care of the highest quality to be afforded to persons of all walks of life.
Nandlall stressed that accusations of the opposition are “hollow”, because this initiative is specifically designed to provide a world class medical facility to address the concerns of poor people, and the opposition has taken a position that, he said, can only be described as “anti-nationalistic and unpatriotic.”
The minister said that, in every part of the world, the right to proper, competent and modern medical care is regarded as a basic human right; and any responsible opposition ought to encourage, support, and even pressure a government to ensure that these facilities are available; especially to sections of the population that, because of their financial and economic standing, would be unable to enjoy such facilities.
He said the PPP/C administration finds the cut to this facility undecipherable on the ground of logic, common sense, and even politics. “At the end of the day, this facility is not intended to benefit supporters of the Government or the ruling party. Certainly, it will benefit every single Guyanese who, at some point in time, (would) require the type of medical procedure and attention that this hospital is intended to dispense,” he said.
He said it is understandable that the opposition parties have some problems with the way the initial stages of construction are proceeding, but it is still quite shocking that this, of all projects, should have been identified for decimation by the joint opposition.
He pointed out that there are many facilities, such as the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee of Supply, available to the opposition for utilisation to allay whatever concerns they may have.
“There is a plenitude of opportunities that are available to the opposition for them to utilize to seek clarifications on any matter that they may have concerns with, because they have the right to oversee the expenditure of public funds. That is a responsibility which the Government will continue to encourage them to discharge,” he said.
The minister said Government continues trying to understand the rationale and logic behind the budget cuts, which have been larger this year than last year. He said those cuts would continue to stymie vital projects in the Government’s plan for the year 2013.
