The National Assembly on Wednesday night concluded the examination of the estimates of expenditure but not before the opposition cut the $20 billion allocation for the Low Carbon Development Strategy by $19 billion citing the need to have the project approved before monies could be voted for it.
In total the amount passed in the revised Appropriation Bill was amended to reflect the $31 billion in cuts made to the $208.8 billion budget.
The bulk of Wednesday’s debate surrounded the merits or demerits of approving up front monies for the Amaila hydroelectric project given that the due diligence by the Inter-American Development Bank is yet to be completed.
Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh said financial closure will come by September 2013 and the opposition said it would wait until then to approve the funds.
Of the $208.8 billion budget, $5.2 billion was cut from the $10.2 billion proposed for the Guyana Power and Light (GPL); $1.2 billion for the specialty hospital project was also snipped along with the entire air transport allocation of $5.63 billion under the Ministry of Public Works. Also coming under the knife was GINA, which had its allocation of $135.858 million reduced to $1; NCN’s $81.337 million was also reduced to $1.
Challenged by AFC Member of Parliament Moses Nagamootoo as to whether the IDB had approved the Amaila project, Singh said the IDB had signed a commitment letter undertaking to do a due diligence study to determine further intervention. “Once they would have completed the due diligence then it goes to the IDB’s board for final approval,” said the minister.
“So there has not yet been the green light from the Board of the IDB in relation to this Amaila Falls project?” asked Ramjattan. “If that is so as I interpret you, how long down this year do you see this green light being put on?” he asked.
“Like I said …there isn’t a single green light which signals go or no go. If the IDB Board and senior managers were not in support of the project we would not have in the first instance gotten a mandate letter…or gotten to the stage where a due diligence is being conducted,” he said.
Ramjattan then asked whether it would not have been wiser to await approval of the project before committing the funds to it.
Singh said that the national budget endeavours to project inflows for the year and to the extent that approval is anticipated to be achieved during the course of 2013: “It is our responsibility to approve of the project.”
Nagamootoo asked the minister to explain whether Guyana has achieved all of the benchmarks agreed to which would trigger the release of the GRIF funds.
The minister said there have been various benchmarks achieved along the way.
Nagamootoo said the AFC would not unreasonably hold back the project but the party must be guaranteed that these benchmarks have been achieved. “A significant player in all of this is the IDB. They are the ones with the technical capability and we have to be guided [by them],” said Nagamootoo.
However, Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman chimed in, saying that while he agrees with Nagamootoo that the benchmarks should be met, the House should not make its decisions based on what a board in Washington sits and decides.
In response, Nagamootoo contended that had the House voted for the LCDS funds for Amaila in the amount of $18 billion last year, “and we had not achieved the benchmarks and had spent that money, then our budgetary deficit would have been larger and we would have had to borrow to pay for that.
“I ask, Sir, whether a project such as this could not wait [until] we have sure indication of closure that we can approve the sums for the equity funding at that time on a supplementary bill that could be brought to this House.
We should not go to war on the basis that we are cutting or disapproving but I am simply asking that we use our best judgement in this matter. We are giving a commitment for funding as soon as we know the guarantee that we look for,” he said.
Addressing the proposal by Nagamootoo, Singh called the situation that of the chicken and the egg. He said that while the opposition did not want to commit the resources until it saw the external parties committing theirs, the external parties are looking on to see that Guyana puts its money on the table. “We need to be mindful of the signal that we send…this is a national project…this is our project,” he said. “I would urge my friends in the House to express in their vote that this project is good for Guyana and that this Parliament is bold enough to say to the global community we are prepared to put our vote in favour of the Amaila Falls project,” he said.
Speaker Trotman, addressing the minister said that with regard to the Amaila project, the airport expansion project and the specialty hospital project: “All three have been described as in the national interest, yet in the context of the 10th Parliament the opposition seemed not to be briefed, consulted… There seems to be no in-depth attempt to have a buy in and certainly if these projects are so important to Guyana we have to move beyond having a cursory meeting at the Office of the President every six months.
“They are too important to this country to fail and there has to be some recognition that there is a different configuration in the 10th Parliament that it is an imperative that the opposition must feel that they are a part of the process,” Trotman said.
AFC’s Valerie Garrido Lowe asked Singh how much money has been provided by Norway to date and for what projects.
Singh said the projects under the LCDS are funded by the partnership between Guyana and Norway. He said that the release of funds happens at several different and distinct stages. He said that US$115 million has so far been released to the GRIF by Norway and US$70 million actually received into the GRIF from Norway.
He said those funds having been received into the GRIF trust fund the Government of Guyana then collaborates with partner entities and agencies in the implementation of individual projects.
