— covers construction of drop-in centre at Sophia, purchase of equipment for West Dem Hospital

FOLLOWING hours of intense deliberations, the National Assembly late Friday night approved the Supplementary Provision on the Current and Capital Estimates totalling $2,976,237,426 for the period January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan had moved Financial Paper No. 3 of 2017 in the House and same was considered in the Committee of Supply where the 20 line items were identified and deliberated upon.

While some line items were not queried by the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), others received intense grilling from the opposition Members of Parliament (MP). Those which raised concerns included the allocations for the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), The Supreme Court, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, and the Ministry of Finance.
In the case of the Ministry of Finance, Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira questioned the $118M supplementary provision sought to cater for additional employment in 2017 by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Previous supplementary provision catered for the setting up of a Special Purposes Unit to manage the reform of the sugar industry to the tune of $130M.
In response, the finance minister explained that some new persons have been hired at the Authority throughout the year and more will soon be hired at the highest level of the entity. In fact, he pointed to the Comptroller of Customs being hired as per advertisements published over the past six weeks.

He disclosed too that 61 new persons have been hired during the course of 2017 and the identified amounts catered for promotions as well.
But Teixeira questioned whether the supplementary provision caters also for Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia’s frequent travels to the United States (U.S.).
“No, it doesn’t… whatever travels he is doing is on his own money… he has his family in Miami,” responded the Finance Minister.

The GDF requested $171M to cater for office materials and supplies to be purchased for operations CLEANSWEEP and SAFEGUARD launched as a result of the June 2017 prison break, along with additional vehicle spares and maintenance, the hiring of transportation and airfares, to cater for additional maintenance of equipment such as stoves, generators and pumps, additional goods and services (rentals), and additional operating expenses which included the purchase of foil pans, towels and straw for the said reason.

Opposition MP Clement Rohee asked, “Could the Minister of Finance indicate to us whether items were purchased in bulk and whether single-sourced?” In response, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said the items were purchased in a block from entities that were pre-qualified to supply the GDF and committed that the names of the entities from which the items were purchased would be presented to the House.

Harmon explained too that the items were purchased to deal with the prison break ,which was not a planned activity. In the case of the vehicle spares for Operations CLEANSWEEP and SAFEGUARD, Rohee questioned whether the GDF has an ongoing maintenance operation programme and whether the vehicles in question belong to the GDF.

Harmon acknowledged that there is a maintenance and inspection regime in the force and noted that the vehicles are the property of the GDF. “… these had to do with damages [sic] which occurred while in operation… the force has a stock of fast-moving parts,” said Harmon.

AIR TRANSPORT
The GDF sought $46, 471, 563 to cater for the hiring of transportation and airfares and according to the minister of state, efforts are being made to purchase a skyvan along with other types of aircraft which would in effect reduce the force’s need to hire aircraft to conduct their operations.

Meanwhile, questions were also asked about the $30, 399, 122 sought by the Supreme Court to cater to its employment cost shortfall in the months of November and December of 2017, as a result of the hiring of eight magistrates and one legal assistant.
Opposition MP, Anil Nandlall, questioned the hiring of the eight magistrates while requesting the minister to provide evidence of the magistrates being sworn in. The finance minister explained that four magistrates were sworn in, while the other four were temporary. He committed to having the requisite information presented to the opposition and the National Assembly next week.

Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, found himself the subject of many questions when the Committee of Supply considered the supplementary provisions requested for his ministry. Questions were asked on provisions sought for dredging, the highway improvement on the East Coast Demerara, West Demerara Highway, and the reconditioning of ferry vessels.

In the case of dredging, he explained that additional resources are needed to purchase additional après for MARAD’s fleet of vessels. As it relates to the highways, Patterson said additional funds are being asked for to cater for the cost escalation for the highway improvement on the East Coast.

As it relates to the West Demerara Highway, he said the $193, 212, 171 requested caters for additional inflows and counterpart resources under the Caribbean Development Bank Loan to facilitate payments under the Fourth Road Project.
Additionally, supplementary finance was requested for the provision of additional resources to facilitate the rehabilitation works on the M.V. Kimbia ($177m) and the additional spare parts for the fleet of ferries ($200M) including for the purchase of air filters injectors, auxiliary pumps, and other critical spares.

Previous supplementary provisions catered for additional costs for the rehabilitation of the MV Sandaka ($100M) and final payment for the rehabilitation of MV Lady Northcote ($75M).

Meanwhile, $147.3M was approved for the Citizen Security Programme II. These sums include the payment for consultancy services and implementation of training programme for youths at risk among other things. Some $9.35M has been approved for the institutional strengthening of CTVET and NAC while $200M for the HIV/TB/Malaria programmes to procure hardware and software to strengthen the Health Management Information System.

Some $23.3M has been approved for the construction of a drop-in centre at Sophia, $5.38M for purchase of equipment to facilitate improved diagnostic capacity of the West Demerara Regional Hospital and $14.84M to rehabilitate damaged bridges in Mipaparu, Yawong, Kawa and Tuseneng in Region Eight.