A PARTNERSHIP for National Unity (APNU) front-bencher, Joseph Harmon, rejected the notion that any person or entity can authorise expenditure from the public purse without the approval of the National Assembly.His comments on Thursday night, in the National Assembly, were made in the context of the ruling by acting Chief Justice Ian Chang on the 2012 budget cuts.
In January this year, Chang ruled that the National Assembly has no right to cut the national budget. The Chief Justice handed down his decision in the High Court on January 29. In the Preliminary Ruling given in June 2012, the CJ had ruled that the National Assembly had a role to either approve or disapprove of the National Estimate, not to cut them.
Following the ruling, the Parliament Office issued a missive claiming that the ruling is an interpretation that would have far-reaching ripples and effects throughout the Commonwealth parliamentary systems and procedures.
According to the statement, the right of the National Assembly to approve, including the right to amend budgetary estimates, is a long established right.
An appeal of Chang’s controversial 2012 Budget cut ruling has since been filed in the name of the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman. The Notice of Appeal of Chang’s decision was filed in February by lawyer and Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, on behalf of the Speaker of the National Assembly.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, subsequently acknowledged that the right to appeal decisions of the court is an enshrined right. However, he expressed his optimism that the ruling of the acting Chief Justice will stand.
REAL IMPACTS QUERY
Harmon argued that for the “vast majority” of Guyanese people, life in Guyana is still a hard one and questioned where the real impacts of development were.
According to him, Budget 2014, like the last two national Estimates, have an underlying “golden thread” – never concede anything to the Opposition, stay on course, more of the same.
“If we had even a modicum of movement in the majority of measures proposed by the Opposition, we would certainly have had a different kind of Budget and the people of Guyana must know this,” he said.
The APNU front-bencher bemoaned the unemployment, above the other challenges, being faced by the Guyanese people and made it clear that “selective use of statistics” and “jerry-meandering” with macro-economic fundamentals will not change this reality.
He underscored the role and importance of public infrastructure to development – one of the key focuses of his contribution to the ongoing Budget debates.
Harmon said, “We have consistently stated that we do not believe in the current pattern of development, which sees large sums of the people’s monies being spent on projects that have the appearance of providing jobs and are only benefiting segments of our population.
“…the budget team is locked into a budget matrix set by this Government, in which the bulk of the public purse is spent on so-called transformational projects…even if this Government intended after eight years to respond to the call of the people for change, they cannot do so without causing a budget disaster.”
The MP in delivering a blow to Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, called on him to “give it up” and find another job.
He also reiterated the need for a focus on public infrastructure and an understanding that this must serve human development.
“The Guyanese people can be assured that an APNU Government will act on your behalf,” Harmon said.
The APNU front-bencher stressed the need for the urgent priorities of roads, bridges, regional airstrips, and water transport to be the focus.
(By Vanessa Narine )