– Luncheon
HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon has dubbed as “bewildering and defying explanation”, the actions of the combined opposition to withhold the authoritisation for replenishing the Contingencies Fund. He was at the time speaking on a special programme aired on the National Communications Network, over the weekend, along with Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh.
Dr. Luncheon explained that the targeting of expenditure which provides for the continued development of the country revealed the capricious nature of the opposition.
“What on earth could possess the minds of the combined opposition that caused them to clearly recognise the expenditure used for the investiture awards and the inauguration ceremony of President Donald Ramotar along with the construction of the Specialty Hospital? …it is nothing more than an opportunity to flex their muscles and demonstrate to the members of the PPP/C and the world in general that they have the majority in parliament and they are prepared to fly in the face of logic, tradition and commonsense to provide the spectacle that was unleashed,” the HPS posited.
Minister Singh said Guyana has now moved into unexplored waters, but the law is clear regarding the incurrence of expenditure.
“The manner in which the laws were written, this kind of perverse outcome was not anticipated…not even in the constitution; this is an unanticipated outcome because the law is so clear and has been followed so scrupulously…we have a situation where a parliamentary majority of one has been used to frustrate a very routine process with no credible reason being advanced or sensible arguments ordered,” Minister Singh said.
He believes that the combined opposition’s actions are pretentious as they publicly declared that they are interested in the development of the country and cooperation and partnership with the PPP/C when in fact they are not.
“You cannot say that you are interested in the development of the people and the country and vote against something that is a part of the national development agenda…something like the Specialty Hospital speaks for itself,” Minister Singh declared.
According to the Finance Minister, it is significant to note that of all the items contained in financial paper number seven, all but four of those items were approved.
“Despite the noises being made by the opposition as to the use of, and the appropriate use of the Contingencies Fund, it is significant to note that they saw it fit to approve the overwhelming majority of the items…for these few items which were not approved no logical argument was put forward and it is of concern…it would seem as if they do not know what they are doing…,” Minister Singh said.
Turning his attention to the way forward, Dr Luncheon said it would be important, in looking ahead, to recognise the action of the opposition and what it may lead to as they, in pursuing their agenda, would obviously have had to come to grips with what next would happen as a consequence of withholding authoritisation.
“If a scenario occurs where there is no contemplation in the constitution, in the minds of the drafters, then it says plainly that the combined opposition was quite willing to move into uncharted grounds…they are not certain what is the eventual outcome of the decisions that they made. This is a lack of comprehension, not following through and thinking out clearly what would follow in the prevailing steps,” Luncheon asserted.
He added that the expenditure presented was already incurred and it is virtually impossible to recall as they cannot un-inaugurate the president or withdraw the national awards and recover the expenditure that went into the investiture. Therefore, “one is tempted to arrive at a conclusion that you are dealing with an opposition who, without clear-cut, recognisable and justifiable end-point objectives, are willing to embark on a course such as this.”
Dr. Luncheon said there is also a dimension outside the actual finances administration which deals with the confidence of the Guyanese people in this administration, particularly those that invest in the country.
“I cannot have a suspicion that one of the consequences aimed for frustrating national development would be to inculcate doubt…to find mechanisms and opportunities to diminish the strength, support and public opinion that is out there in support of the developmental thrust in Guyana…this engagement was an act of cutting off your nose to spite the face…the opposition is indeed on a path designed that could culminate in loss of public opinion… one should easily recognise how unpatriotic and anti-development the current composition of the opposition has become,”  Dr. Luncheon charged.