$330B Emergency Budget will launch Guyana back onto development path – Edghill

…could have been presented since April, if not for attempts to rig elections

The $330B Emergency Budget was on Wednesday presented at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, marking the first budget in almost two years and providing Guyana with much needed resources and development plans after the political upheaval of the past year.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, who delivered the budget to the National Assembly, identified combating COVID-19 as one of the priority areas of the budget. Another priority area is safely reopening the economy and restoring economic normalcy to the country.

“Programmes and policies will be implemented to quickly turn around the situation we inherited and set the stage for the implementation of the transformative projects we promised in our manifesto,” Edghill informed his colleagues, even as the Opposition side of the House stood empty due to A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change’s (APNU/AFC) decision to boycott the budget reading.
“This Budget embodies a no-nonsense, no frills, no fluff, people-centred, pro-poor, results-oriented approach to launch this nation back on its positive development trajectory,” the Minister said.
During his presentation, Edghill pointed out that the budget cycle took a mere 22 days, when in fact the budget preparation process normally takes over 150 days to complete. Lauding Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, for his leadership in preparing the budget, and the team that worked with him, Edghill noted that the budget was prepared in record time.
In fact, Edghill noted that had the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) been allowed to take office as they should have done after winning the March 2nd General and Regional Elections, a budget could have been presented the very next month, in August.

“We now have to come with Annual Budget 2020 in the last quarter of the year. This could have been avoided if the will of the people had been respected and had not been sabotaged on March 5th and March 13th, 2020,” he said in reference to the attempts of Region Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo to alter the results of the elections.
“Had these treacherous events not occurred, the PPP/C, as the legitimately elected Government, would have had Budget 2020 in this House by April of this year. The nation would not have had to endure this untenable situation over those long five months, and our present dire financial and economic situation could have been reversed faster,” Edghill also said.
At the end of Edghill’s presentation, Prime Minister Mark Phillips moved a motion to adjourn the sitting until Monday, September 14th, at 10:00hrs.

Measures
Of the $330 billion being presented, $51.7 billion, representing 15 per cent of the total budget, will be going to health. This includes $14.3 billion for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies.
In the field of education, $52 billion has been set aside, including $1.7 billion for construction and rehabilitation of schools. A further $3 billion has been set aside for housing and $2 billion for the Guyana Water Incorporated.
In addition, $34.4 billion has been allocated to go to the Public Works Ministry, where work will be done on a number of projects, including the Ogle Bypass Road and the East Coast Railway Embankment Road.
The Ogle Bypass Road, according to Edghill in an interview with this publication after his marathon presentation, will be worked on as quickly as possible. He noted that the project, funded by the Indian Export Import (EXIM) Bank, is at the agreement stage.
“That is currently at the level of an agreement. And since it is a road that will be funded by the Indian Government, the procurement process will involve Indian contractors. But it is something that is being moved on very expeditiously,” he said.
This publication interviewed a few Ministers, who spoke about some of the programmes and work they will be doing in their Ministries with the budgetary allocations. Junior Public Works Minister Deodat Indar spoke of the projects the Ministry will be carrying out.
“The budget has an overarching vision of transformation. As you can see, with the infrastructure we’re going to put in from our Ministry, the infrastructure is massive. Days into Government, we got a whole lot of big projects approved,” Indar said.
“The $50 million road, the hinterland solar project, we have the ferry (with cold storage for Region One). We’re redesigning the project for the 125 kilometres of Linden road, and that’s supposed to be finalised before the end of the year. So, there’s much in the budget. And we’d have to go through it sector by sector to show how the benefits will accrue to the Guyanese people.”

Housing drive
This publication had previously reported that the Housing Ministry will be moving towards the distribution of 10,000 house lots over the next year – one of the promises in the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) election manifesto.
Meanwhile, Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal, in an interview after the budget reading, emphasised that the PPP will be embarking on its most aggressive housing drive yet, while ensuring that persons are given land with basic infrastructure such as roads and water.
“This budget here, we’re talking about our first 10,000. Because the 50,000 is just our medium term in our first term. And I can say it will be 50,000 and more. Our aggressive drive is to also make land available. But it’s not just about giving a letter and an allocation. We need to move further than that: to put the infrastructure in place, to encourage persons that they can go and build immediately,” Minister Croal also said.
Human Services Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud spoke of the Ministry’s plans to establish venues around the country where child abuse can be reported in a safe and confidential manner, and the reports dealt with by professionals. Moreover, Persaud referred to a family enhancement programme.
“Our Family Enhancement Programme is a big one. This one will be expanded, dealing with young people who display disruptive behaviour. They are troubled teenagers, and working with them and their families so they can have an opportunity where life is concerned,” she said, adding that families are the building blocks of Guyana.
With a total of $329.5 billion being presented on Wednesday, it therefore means that the budget figures must be debated by the two sides, although it is unclear whether the APNU/AFC boycott of the process will continue.
After the figures are debated, the Parliamentary Committee of Supply is convened, and must review the line items for the estimates. It is only after the committee’s work is completed and it reports to the National Assembly that the budgetary sums can be adopted and disbursed.
Meanwhile, the Opposition APNU/AFC boycotted Wednesday’s Budget presentation.