President Donald Ramotar last night assailed the opposition for slashing the 2012 budget and accused the main opposition – APNU – of reneging on agreements reached with his administration but said that he remains committed to dialogue.
In a 13-minutes-long address to the nation, the president said that the $21 billion in budget cuts threaten many transformative projects started by the government and will delay the commencement of others. The president said that while his administration demonstrated goodwill, APNU and the AFC conspired and “ended up retarding the development taking place in the country.” The “inexplicable” and “unfathomable” budget cuts “constitute an ominous threat to the livelihood of Guyanese and to future generations,” Ramotar said.
However, he said that his faith in dialogue remains undiminished. “I still hold to the view that dialogue with all Guyanese, including the political parties, is the best way for us to narrow our differences and reach consensus on the way forward. However dialogue cannot be constructive or productive when the other side is intransigent or adopt an “all or nothing” posture,” the president declared. He said that he remains optimistic that Guyanese will be able to overcome the challenges presented by the developments of the past few days. “I want to assure all Guyana that the steps and decisions I take in the coming period will be guided by the national interest and commitment to the well-being of the people of this country,” the president said. “I am confident that we will overcome the present setback.”
On Thursday night, Budget 2012 was approved by the National Assembly minus $20.8 billion cut by the one-seat majority opposition comprising APNU and the AFC. Both parties signalled their willingness to approve at a later date the funds now being withheld, once government addresses concerns over the allocations. Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh had presented a budget of $192.5 billion.
Earlier Thursday, the opposition cut all but one dollar for an allocation of $18.39 billion covering a number of low carbon projects under the Ministry of Finance, namely, the Amaila Falls Project ($16.4 billion), Amerindian land titling ($202.1 million), Amerindian Development Fund ($205 million), small and micro enterprise ($512.5 million), adaptation project – Cunha Canal ($410 million) and institutional strengthening of agencies connected to the LCDS ($615 million). The opposition has argued that this allocation was expunged as there was no guarantee that the money would be released to Guyana by the World Bank which is managing the funds for the Norway forest deal. It has been argued that the government should have handled this allocation by way of a conditional appropriation.
On Wednesday, the opposition voted to cut allocations for the National Communications Network (NCN) ($81.2 million cut), Government Information Agency (GINA) ($130.4 million), the Guyana Elections Commission ($527 million), Office of the President ($150 million, $345 million), and Office of the Prime Minister ($6 billion).
Ramotar said last night that the cuts appear to be motivated by a desire of the AFC and APNU to undermine progress in the country. The implications of the cuts are wide ranging, he said, asserting that people could lose their jobs and the cuts threaten the financing of the many transformative projects which were intended to boost economic growth, create thousands of jobs and ensure increased benefits for Guyanese.
The president singled out the Amaila Falls Hydro Power Station and indigenous and hinterland communities. “The shears of the opposition have injudiciously severed the Hinterland Electrification Project which would have seen eleven thousand solar energy systems being provided to interior residents in 150 communities,” he said.
Accusing the opposition of “vindictively butcher(ing)” a land titling project for Amerindian communities, “scalping” the country’s ICT programme, “crippling” the Ethnic Relations Commission and undermining the fight against narco-trafficking, the president said that through these “poisonous” acts, “the opposition seems determined to slow down and eventually halt the impressive growth” taking place under the PPP/C government. “Using the dictatorship of one which they have in Parliament they want to stymie further progress obviously in the hope that if they can stop the development of our country they would advance their political mission which is to take power, even if is at the expense of ordinary Guyanese well-being,” Ramotar charged.
He said that it was “reckless and irresponsible and reflects the undemocratic nature of APNU, a creature of the PNCR, and the AFC which is led by bitter men obsessed with achieving personal power.” Ramotar said that the opposition committed the “foul deed” despite long meetings over six days “during which the government provided exhaustive answers to all their concerns and offered reasonable responses to their demands.”
“In the course of these engagements, we had reached agreements with APNU which they subsequently reneged on, fearing that the AFC would steal political support from them, and bowing to pressures from extremists in and outside of their ranks,” he said. “We demonstrated goodwill from the beginning in increasing the old age pension to ten thousand dollars per month,” the president said.
He added that agreement was also reached on a package of measures to assist the citizens of Linden which was due to be subjected to a phased reduction in subsidies which would see the citizens of that mining community paying only a half of the tariff which the rest of the country is paying. He said that during the negotiations both the AFC and APNU were inflexible on this issue.
On the issue of reducing the 16% Value Added Tax (VAT), Ramotar said that the government believes that a study was needed before any action was taken but the administration is open to extending the list of zero-rated items. “This we believe is a more targeted way to assist persons considered to be low income earners,” he said.
In terms of the reduction of the tolls on the Berbice River Bridge, Ramotar said that the government pointed out that the company, BBCI running the entity is a private company and were government to take over the bridge, it would put Guyana in a bad position since agreement has been reached with the investors on a rate of return. This was rejected by the opposition, he said. Ramotar said that the opposition was also advised that government was putting back a ferry to cross the river to correct the disadvantage that school children and workers in the Rosignol and West Bank Berbice may experience since the bridge became operational.
“We also agreed to the creation of a Depressed Community Fund and proposed its funding of over $2 billion for 2012 through an allocation of 1% of VAT revenue collections in 2011,” he said.
The president said that the PPP/C has always been ready to consult and to meet with the opposition and all stakeholders in the interest of advancing the socio-economic interests of Guyanese. He pointed to his previous meetings with the opposition and also cited his orders that the contracts of all the projects which they queried be made available publicly. “We have been open and frank at all times with the Opposition,” the president said.
He stated that unfortunately the combined opposition has conspired and ended up retarding the development taking place in the country. “Their actions now threaten the many transformative projects that our government has started and delayed the commencement of others in the pipeline. By putting workers on the breadline, they have demonstrated a callous and mean-spirited attitude. The inexplicable and unfathomable cuts instituted by the opposition to our National Budget constitute an ominous threat to the livelihood of Guyanese and to future generations.
These reductions in our Budget provisions assail not just workers rights but also threaten to reverse the gains which our people, through hard work and sacrifice, have earned over the years. The cuts constitute an assault on workers, their living standards, on economic growth, national unity, freedom of expression and our democratic gains,” he said.
