THE People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) yesterday stressed that while it will be a responsible Opposition, it will not falter in holding the Government accountable and some action could be expected in the House in the days ahead.Speaking at a party press briefing at Freedom House, former Minister within the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill said the Opposition has acted responsibly, even though it had many

opportunities to gravely embarrass the Government.
He told reporters that when errors in the estimates and expenditure of the budget were discovered, the party chose to point them out and be constructive rather than obstructive.
Edghill was referring to the situation where the budgetary estimates clashed with two laws that were passed under the David Granger Administration.
Those laws are the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Fiscal Management and Authority (FMA) (Amendment) Act 2015.
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, in a subsequent statement, said the Government does not agree with the Opposition that the estimates violate any laws, but agreed to adjust the structure of the estimates to specify block votes for certain public agencies.
These agencies include the Parliament Office; the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions; Judicial, Police, and Public Service Commissions; the Public Service Appellate Tribunal; Office of the Ombudsman; and the Guyana Elections Commission.
Edghill declined to disclose what actions will be taken by the PPP/C, and instead said all must stay tuned to see what the party will do when it enters the House.
He also said the Opposition is disappointed that the Government members are yet to provide answers to questions they could not readily answer during consideration of the Estimates and Expenditure period.
The Government members had promised to provide answers to the Opposition MPs by Wednesday. But this aside, the former Finance Minister said the reduction of time for consideration of the Estimates to three days was unnecessary.
He said it in effect limited scrutiny by the Opposition since in the interest of time; the Speaker had to limit the questions asked.

CONSIDERABLE PRESSURE
In addition, Edghill noted that the reduction of the days put the Speaker, MPs and Parliament staff under considerable pressure, as they had to go to work early and finish in the wee hours the next day.

Meanwhile, veteran PPP/C MP Indranie Chandarpal said the Opposition is not afraid of scrutiny of its tenure in office, but expressed reservation with the process being used by the Government to carry out audits of several state agencies.
She contended that the approach is not compliant with the law, pointing out that the work was not advertised, it is being done by two known critics of the former Administration, and quite surprisingly, the Office of the Auditor General was excluded in the process.
This, along with several other decisions made by the Administration in their first four months in office, Chandarpal said, does not speak well of them.
But, she said, the PPP/C will be holding the Administration accountable and has already begun documenting their “arrogance” and “discrimination.”
Another PPP/C MP Anil Nandlall said the Opposition is dissatisfied with the explanation given by Government members to questions asked on some sectors.
During consideration of the estimates and expenditure of the budget, there were occasions when there were more Opposition than Government MPs in the House.
When asked why the Opposition did not use the opportunity to vote down expenditures it finds disapproving, Nandlall said the Opposition is aware of a court order barring them from cutting the budget.
He said, too, that the Opposition does not want to slash monies that would go towards creating jobs and stimulating the growth of the economy.
But he said the PPP/C will be robustly exposing the flaws of the Government for all to see, and for the people to make a judgement.
Nandlall said that as a responsible Opposition, the PPP/C will be pressing the Government hard on its promise to reduce VAT, significantly increase Old Age Pension and wages and salaries for public servants, among others.

By Tajeram Mohabir