Although the PPP/C has taken the new administration to task for the discontinuation of the $10,000 cash grant programme for parents of children in public schools, Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman last night presented evidence that the former government never intended to continue payouts this year.
Holding up the minutes of a PPP/C government cabinet subcommittee meeting on education, held in February, he said that with regards to the “Because we care” education cash grant it was conceded that the programme would not be possible in 2015.
“We are being accused of discontinuing a programme that they [the former PPP/C government] admitted would not be possible in this year,” Trotman announced as he made his contribution to the 2015 budget debate.
“You can’t suck cane and blow whistle at the same time. It is either we have copied your good budget or we have created and fashioned a bad budget,” he added.
The programme began in October last year. However, it was not included in this year’s budget presentation and the PPP/C was among those who slammed this decision.
Meanwhile, Trotman, during his presentation, also defended the government’s right to remove people upon its assumption of office.
The APNU+AFC government has been criticised for the dismissal of persons in various ministries and government departments since it took office in May but Trotman asserted the government’s right to make changes.
“We reject this notion that to touch anyone is to cleanse or to flush. It is a standard feature in any change of any capital in the world,” he argued
Trotman, in his presentation, also rejected critical comments made on the government’s conferral of national awards on May 26th this year. He said when the APNU+AFC government took office it was confronted with “a pile about five or six inches high of people who had been waiting for years [for awards] and had been rejected and it was only that list that was picked up and put into effect… that list of persons who received national awards was the list that we found.”
Trotman said too that the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) needs strengthening and reform and added that government welcomes the election petition filed by the opposition over the 2015 general elections as it is confident that the margin of victory at the polls was way beyond four thousand-plus votes that separated the two major forces. “We would like the petition to proceed so that the truth and justice may finally and definitely be served,” he said.
The PPP/C has charged that the elections were rigged. He also said government has prepared and is ready to ratify a code of conduct by which all on the government side will be bound. “The question is whether on that side of the House they are prepared to be bound by any rules at all,” he noted.
Focus will be given to the rehabilitation of the Integrity Commission, strengthening of the Office of the Ombudsman and the establishment of a Public Procurement Commission (PPC). With respect to the latter, he called on the opposition to name its nominees, while noting that such a commission is necessary for transparency and competitiveness in the procurement process. The PPC has been stalled for more than a decade now.
Trotman said government will make several other commissions stronger and in making them autonomous will move them out from under the “bosom” of the Ministry of Finance,” bringing them perhaps under the Office of the Parliament so that they can have their own budget and function independently. He said that in this regard government will proceed with a draft bill that was prepared during the 10th Parliament.
Trotman, whose portfolio also includes the natural resources sector, said that just as gold is underperforming so is bauxite. He said that the world demand for the mineral has slowed and so has the country’s output. He assured, however, that the issue is being looked at.
With regards to forestry, he said government continues to monitor the industry and noted that there is a sense that there is inequity and disregard for the law, which have to be addressed. Regulation, he assured, will be looked at in the months ahead.
He also expressed concerns about mining deaths and said that the government is awaiting the findings of the Commission of Inquiry that was set up. The Guyana Gold Board will be strengthened to curb the smuggling of gold, he added
He also revealed that a Wildlife Import and Export bill will be brought before the House late next month to be passed ahead of a wildlife conference early next year. He said the draft had been recalled by the Wildlife Management Authority because it was deemed to be too weak. He said it has since been reviewed.
Trotman also mentioned that Bartica will become the country’s first green town and added that the presidential advisor on the environment, Rear Admiral Gary Best, will soon present a report on how this will be achieved.
