Finance Minister snubs stakeholders’ request for talks before passage

Budget 2017

Finance Minister Winston Jordan joined his colleague, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in disregarding continuous calls by major stakeholders for an urgent meeting on the National Budget 2017 before its passage sometime this week.
“I think the Prime Minister is in terms of rank, outranks me and this was put to the Prime Minister and he adequately represented the views of the Government. It is not for me to add to that, I think he has adequately explained where that matter lies,” Jordan told media operatives on Monday during his yearend press conference at the Finance Ministry on Main Street, Georgetown.

In a move regarded as a major phenomenon in the country’s political history; the Private Sector Commission (PSC) joined forces with two chief labour movements: the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) in calling for an imperative multi-stakeholder forum on some of the worrying contents in Budget 2017.
Consistent with Article 13 of the Guyana Constitution, the three bodies jointly dispatched letters to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo (leader of Government Business), Dr Barton Scotland (Speaker of the National Assembly) and Bharrat Jagdeo (Leader of the Opposition) regarding their request.
But Nagamootoo told media operatives that Government will not be meeting with the bodies for now. “There was a period before the budget was laid when consultation was encouraged; however, once it reaches the Legislature, only one of two things can happen; that is, the budget is either approved or not approved. There is no unwillingness to meet but we are involved in a gruelling, unending process as we consider the estimates. Basically the timing is wrong,” he is quoted as saying in sections of the media.
The three bodies strongly believe “deliberate efforts” are being made to avoid having the engagement on “what is most evidently a matter of national importance that will impact on and carry consequences for our constituents.”
The bodies are concerned about the new VAT system, the proposed garnishing of accounts of delinquent taxpayers by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), among other measures.
Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira had described the development as “phenomenally important” and lambasted the Government for ignoring the public’s concerns.
“The Government is being hard ears. It doesn’t want to listen and it doesn’t want to budge. And if you had sat in the debates, you would know that the Government is oblivious to the calls of the people… this is a phenomenally important political development in terms of the coming together of these bodies to be able to say to a Government ‘no, you’re not doing the right thing. You are damaging this country. You are hurting the people, particularly the poor people,’” she expressed.
Teixeira highlighted that the opposition voices in the country, political and non-political, are “as loud… we haven’t heard since 1985” – when the People’s National Congress ruled the country. (Devina Samaroo)