Gov’t moves to court to restore budget

The Donald Ramotar administration yesterday moved to the court to challenge the recent cuts made to the national budget, arguing that the opposition-controlled National Assembly had no power to reduce or set public spending.

In an ex parte application filed in the High Court late Monday afternoon, Attorney General Anil Nandlall also requested that the court grant an interim order to allow Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh to make advances from the Contingencies Fund to restore the originally budgeted estimates for the agencies affected by the cuts. The application warns that failure to do so would result in “constitutional chaos” and “jeopardizes the nation’s interest,” as it would result in the administration’s ability to govern and administer the affairs of the country.

Roger Luncheon

Opposition Leader David Granger, Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman, who is also leader of the AFC, and Minister Singh were named as the respondents in the case, which acting Chief Justice Ian Chang has set down for tomorrow in Chambers. It is expected that he will hear arguments then on whether he should grant the interim order sought by government.

The action comes just over a month after APNU and the AFC used their one-seat majority in the National Assembly to effect cuts amounting to $20.8 billion from the $192.5 billion originally presented by Singh, including the reduction of budgetary allocations for some state agencies to $1.

The affidavit in support of the application was sworn to by Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon and avers that no power resides in the National Assembly, either in the Committee of Supply, or at all, to move an amendment to reduce any aspect of the Annual Estimates of Revenues and Expenditure laid by the Minister of Finance. He says too that the National Assembly has no power whatsoever, in proposing a new or different sum, or any sum at all.

As a result, he contends that the two motions moved by MPs Khemraj Ramjattan and Carl Greenidge to effect the budget cuts “amounted not only to an arrogation of powers which the Constitution does not confer upon them, but was also a usurpation of a function which the Constitution exclusively resides in the Executive, thereby, abrogating the doctrine of separation of powers.”

Affected

The agencies identified in the application as being affected by the cuts are Office of the President, including Cabinet, Advisers to Cabinet, the Defence Board, Presiden-tial Advisers, the Government Information Agency, the National Communications Network; Office of the Prime Minister, and specifically the Guyana Power and Light; the Ministry of Finance, and in particular the Ethnic Rela-tions Commission, the State Planning Secretariat, and the Low Carbon Development Strategy; and the Guyana Elections Commission. It is also noted that hundreds of persons who are directly employed by affected offices and agencies are now, without any fault of theirs or their employers, rendered jobless, colliding with their legitimate expectation of gainful continued employment.

Vested

According to Luncheon, none of the offices and entities is new and no power is vested in the National Assembly by the Constitution to affect funding to existing offices, save and except, a power of complete disapproval as contemplated by Article 218. Article 218 of the Constitution reposes in a designate of the President, the Minister of Finance, the responsibility to prepare and lay before the National Assembly, for its approval, the Annual Estimates of Revenues and Expenditure for each financial year. “In short, it is the exclusive responsibility of the Executive to prepare and lay before the National Assembly the Annual Estimates of Revenues and Expenditure for each financial year,” Luncheon explains. “…Apart from a power of approval, which necessarily includes a power of disapproval, the said Article, nor any other Article in the Constitution, reposes any other power in the National Assembly,” he adds

He also cites the reduction of the Ethnic Relations Commission’s budget as the clearest evidence of the “unconstitutional nature” and “unlawful magnitude” of the National Assembly’s actions, noting that the constitution protects the agency’s financial autonomy by making its expenditure financeable as a direct charge on the Consolidated Fund.  “Indeed, so entrenched is the protection accorded to the finances of this and similarly positioned bodies, that it finds expressions in a series of constitutional provisions, including, articles 218 and 222A,” he points out, adding that Cabinet, its advisers and the Elections Commission can also be viewed in the same light given their responsibilities. “… the reduction of funding to these Offices will affect their ability to function thereby creating serious and irremediable constitutional vacuums in those offices which would prevent them from executing their constitutional functions and other duties,” he added, saying that the means at the state’s disposal are more than adequate to meet the proposed budget and that the balance of convenience, justice and national interest weighs heavily in favour of the granting of the orders being sought.

In addition to the temporary order, government is also seeking an order vacating and/or setting aside the budget reduction. “Unless the Orders sought herein are granted, the offices and entities affected would be unable to, or severely and irreversibly prevented from, discharging their functions in the manner provided for and contemplated by the Constitution, and/or legislation, resulting not only in constitutional chaos, but the Executive’s inability to govern and administer the affairs of this nation in accordance with the provisions of and the manner contemplated by the Constitution,” Luncheon contended.

Luncheon also argued that the Constitution contemplates that Parliament’s two components, the President, as the supreme executive authority and head of the executive, and the National Assembly, will function constructively and in harmony with each other.  As a result, he says that the National Assembly must “rationally and reasonably approve annual expenditures laid before it by the Executive, because the Executive needs these finances to manage and conduct the affairs of the nation, including the other branches of Government, that is, the Legislature and the Judiciary.” He further adds that approval of financial allocations to the Legislature and the Judiciary without interference, and the financial strangulation of the Executive by the reductions, “constitute an unlawful and an unconstitutional interference with the independence of the Executive, as well as a contravention of the doctrine of separation of powers.”

In addition to the orders, the government is seeking the following declarations:

Declarations

(1)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 26th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 012 – Presidential Advisory (Cabinet and Other Services), Account Code and Description 6116 – Contract Employees and 6284 – Other from GYD$296,959,000.00 to GYD$147,000,000.00 and from GYD$104,243,000.00 to GYD$24,200,000.00 is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(2)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 26th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 031 Ministry Administration, Account Code and Description 6321 – Subsidies and Contributions to Local Organisations from GYD$6,724,352.00 to GYD$6,499,933.00 is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(3)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 26th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 031 Ministry Administration, Account Code and Description – 3401000 Low Carbon Development from GYD$18,394,650,000.00 to GYD$1.00 is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(4)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 24th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 011 Administrative Services, Account Code and Description – 6321 Subsidies and Contributions to Local Organisations from GYD$918,719,000.00 to GYD$707,149,000.00 is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(5)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 24th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 011 Administrative Services, Account Code and Description – 6321 Government Information Agency from GYD$130,398,000.00 to GYD$1.00 and Account Code and Description 3400700 from GYD$15,000,000.00 to GYD$1.00, is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(6)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 24th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 011 Administrative Services, Account Code and Description – 6321 National Communications Network from GYD$81,172,000.00 to GYD$1.00 and Account Code and Description 4502100 from GYD$65,000,000.00 to GYD$1.00, is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(7)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 24th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 011 Administrative Services, Account Code and Description 1212000 Information Communications Technology from GYD$6,750,000,000.00 to GYD$6,580,000,000.00, is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(8)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 24th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 011 Administrative Services, Account Code and Description 1212000 – Minor Works from GYD$95,000,000.00 to GYD$1.00, is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(9)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 24th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 112 Elections Administration, Account Code and Description 6293 Refreshment and Meals from GYD$53,700,000.00 to GYD$27,000,000.00, and Account Code and Description 6294 – Other from GYD$902,800,000.00 to GYD$403,000,000.00, is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect;

(10)    A Declaration that the reduction of Estimates of the Revenues and Expenditure of Guyana for the year 2012, by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly on the 24th April, 2012, in respect of line-item 021 Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Account Code and Description 6321 – Guyana Power and Light from GYD$6,000,000,000.00 to GYD$5,000,000,000.00, is an abrogation of the doctrine of separation of powers, unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect.