Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira has labelled the APNU+AFC administration’s attempts at making “a fresh start” in running the country a failure.
“This ‘I-don’t-care’ government has a narcissistic desire to demonstrate that it is different and known for a fresh start, denoting that all that came before is of no value,” Teixeira opined during the budget debate in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
However, she lamented that the administration is the first government that has brought three budgets to the National Assembly within 19 months. Another first, she said, is that the three budgets amount to a whopping $670B.
“Yet it [the government] says to this House that it inherited a bankrupt country, that we [the PPP/C] left the economy in a parlous state. So where this $670B coming from? You manufacture it? You
printing money? What are you doing?” she questioned.
Teixeira also pointed out that the APNU+AFC government is the first government in the history of British Guiana and post-independence Guyana to implement 200 new tax measures in 10 months. “Not one year, 10 months. 143 in February and 57 in December,” she pointed out.
She also said the current administration is the first government to bring a budget that has been so heavily criticised by persons from all walks of life, including its supporters. Teixeira described the budget as draconian and anti-people and said the government’s dismissal of most of the private sector’s recommendations shows that it is oblivious to the concerns of the people.
“This is the first government to bring a budget while one is in implementation,” she added, pointing out that the government is also the first government to have presented a budget that is devoid of any developmental strategies. “Only platitudes and descriptions – we will, we shall—this is the first government in two decades that is totally oblivious to the wants of the people,” Teixeira said.
She also stated that the immunisation rates have dropped below 90% and pointed out that it currently stands around 70% and below. “This was the flagship of Guyana. You should be ashamed of yourself. You come to this house and tell us about the good life,” she remonstrated.
