Dear Editor,
The following is my response to Mr. Jordan’s letter under the caption `The Constitution of Guyana provides four instances in which spending can be undertaken without prior Parliamentary approval’, as contained in yesterday’s issue of the Stabroek News.
Our last Monday’s Accountability Watch column provoked a reaction from former Minister of Finance Winston in which he disputed the statement we made that withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund to meet expenditure on public services beyond the first four months of the fiscal year in the absence of an approved budget, would lack constitutional/legislative support. In support of his argument, he cited Article 2019 (3) which reads as follows: “Where at any time Parliament has been dissolved before any provision or any sufficient provision is made … for the carrying on of the Government of Guyana, the Minister responsible for finance may authorise the withdrawal of such sums from the Consolidated Fund as he or she may consider necessary for the purpose of meeting expenditure on the public services until the expiry of a period of three months commencing with the date on which the National Assembly first meets after dissolution…”
We thank the former Minister for raising the matter to enable us to provide the necessary clarification. The Minister may have overlooked the last set of words in the above quote: ‘until the expiry of three months commencing with the date on which the National Assembly first meets after dissolution’. Parliament was dissolved on 30 December 2019, and the Assembly met for the first time thereafter on 1 September 2020. Therefore, the three months referred to above would have been from September to November 2020. Additionally, the 2020 Estimates were approved in September 2020 and therefore there was no need to apply the above constitutional provision.
We maintain our last week’s statement position that ‘all withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund during the period May-August 2020 would have been devoid of constitutional/legislative authority’.
Yours sincerely,
Anand Goolsarran
