APNU budget cut continuation of PNC style government
THE recent action by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to slash the 2012 National Budget by some $21 billion, leaving hundreds of workers on the breadline, is seen as a continuation of the manner in which the People’s National Congress (PNC) governed during its time in office. President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), Mr. Carvil Duncan, who made the charge at the National Park May Day rally in Georgetown, said that despite convincing arguments and explanations by the Government side in the National Assembly last week during consideration of the Estimates of Expenditure, the Opposition had premeditated to move ahead and leave workers uncertain about their future.
Attacking APNU, particularly, he referred to the actions of the then PNC Administration, in 1981, when he said it embarked on a programme called redeployment that saw approximately 100 public servants receiving letters of retrenchment.
Duncan, also General Secretary of the Guyana Labour Union (GLU), said he was angry with the Opposition and recalled another scheme through which  the PNC undertook restructuring, resulting in many of the workers losing their jobs and mounting protests.
He expressed the view that the PNC and APNU are the same and any efforts to make Guyanese believe that the two are different should be thwarted.

CRITICAL SECTORS
Duncan said many of the reductions from the Budget will affect critical sectors for development, such as the One Laptop per Family (OLPF) and the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) among others.
He said, taking that into consideration, one would ask where is the country heading as most of its developmental projects are being stalled.
According to Duncan, what APNU has done indicates that it does not have the interest of the workers at heart and is similar to the undertaking by the PNC Administration when it was in office.
The FITUG President alleged that APNU and the AFC are only concerned with crippling the Government at the expense of the workers. However, in their pursuit of that goal, they should also remember that many of the workers that are left jobless had put their confidence in them at the last elections, by casting ballots in their favour.
But a number of organisations have, since, spoken against the Opposition while the coalition has sought, in numerous ways, to justify what it has done.
APNU, in its efforts to justify the slashing of expenses, maintained it was not intended to leave workers without jobs but to ensure that there is greater accountability and end mismanagement of taxpayers’ money.
The party believes that it is the responsibility of the Government to find jobs for its people at the end of the day.