President must fire entire Cabinet over 2017 Budget

… shares collective responsibility in negligence, malpractice – Bishop Edghill

Head of State David Granger should immediately fire his entire Cabinet Council of Ministers since they would have failed in their collective responsibility as dictated by the Constitution of Guyana, to competently advise him with regard the preparation of the 2017 Budget, due to negligence and malpractice.

This is the disposition of former Minister within the Finance Ministry, Bishop Juan Edghill who called Budget 2017, as presented by substantive Minister Winston Jordan, an assault on the Private Sector and young professionals all over the country – professionals who have all had all their allowances slashed as a result of the measures being introduced by the Administration.
“Every sector of the population has cried out against the budget and is this the budget that they have sat and decided to present to the nation,” he queried.
Edgehill in his presentation to the Debates over the 2017 allocations sought to dissect the figures by pointing out that Government has in fact already slashed its own budget down from $250 billion to the actual allocations of $228 billion.
The former Minister qualified his position by pointing to the decision by the Administration to have all budgetary allocations for Budget agencies and statutory bodies subject to paying Value Added Tax (VAT).
He told the House that the move came about through an act of desperation on the part of the coalition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government.
According to Edghill, $19 billion from the 2017 Budget has to be immediately deducted since this represents payments for foreign debts and will not actually be considered under the Appropriation Act.
The remaining money will then have to be deducted by 14 per cent which heads straight back to the consolidated fund as VAT revenues in order for Government to fund its programmmes.
Calling the move a desperate act of getting resources, Edghill told the House that Government is seeking to take away $21 billion from the budgetary expenditure to go back into the Treasury as VAT, “robbing the people of goods and service.”
Bishop Edghill said too he empathises with Finance Minister Jordan since none of the Government speakers to the debate has dared to defend the 57 taxation measures to be implemented.
“What they have all sought to do is explain how they will spend the money they will get… they are not standing with him as it relates to the measures on how he will collect the money to give to them,” according to Edghill.
He did offer an acknowledgement to the Finance Minister, saying Minister Jordan did in fact diagnose the economy correctly.
Edghill referred to Jordan’s presentation of the budget on November 28 last when he conceded that almost every sector with the exception of gold mining had declined significantly during the past year.
Notwithstanding this disclosure on the part of the Finance Minister, Edghill said the budget measures outlined will not act as an incentive for any of the declining sectors.
According to Edghill, “it will make it worse and the one sector that is doing well they have now put a strangulation on it.”
He was adamant Cabinet is guilty of malpractice and negligence and it is on those grounds they ought to be fired.
According to the former Minster, “if the President don’t fire them, the people of Guyana will fire them.”
Edghill said the declining sectors of the economy can only mean the loss of jobs.
Budgets, according to the former Junior Finance Minister must focus on priorities, and as such, the 2017 Budget has aptly demonstrated where the priorities of the APNU/AFC Administration lie, “their priorities is taxation.”
Meanwhile, on the matter of the declining economy, Edghill used the occasion to point out that it was not a case where the Private Sector had performed badly but rather a large chunk of the blame lies in the fact that the Government’s Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) had not achieved its objectives and had lagged significantly behind.
Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson in his presentation to the House earlier in the day, lamented the pace of the implementation of the PSIP.
According to Patterson, the pace of implementation in 2016 was not as in anticipated “but we have improved capacity,”
He told the House that the Public Infrastructure Ministry has since been able to put district engineers and clerk of works in each administrative region.
Patterson was adamant that there has been significant development in the short space of time and the APNU/AFC Administration has been in office and with an early budget there will be time to complete the projects as set out in 2017 Budget.
He had commenced his presentation to the House by saying Government is “working to transform this land into a heaven on earth.”
According to Patterson, the measures in Budget 2017 will see Government achieving its stated goal.