Georgetown : President Donald Ramotar made it clear that his Administration will not be threatened by the political Opposition in any way. Yesterday Vice-Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Moses Nagamootoo was quoted in one of the daily newspaper saying that his Party is considering the movement of a no-confidence motion against the Government.
Speaking at the 22th Annual General Meeting of the Private Sector Commission Ramotar said that, “if the Opposition wants to pass a no-confidence motion, let them pass it and we will be ready to deal with the consequences of that.”
The AFC is accusing the Government of having no regard for accountability after the Government moved to restore funds that were not approved by the National Assembly during the consideration of the 2014 national budget.
The President reminded that this matter was dealt with several times by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh as well as Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon.
On separate occasions they both explained that the Constitution of Guyana provides a mechanism specifically address the shortages in terms of expenditure. Additionally, the Government was guided by the rulings of the Chief Justice, which state that the Opposition has no right to cut the country’s budget estimates and can only approve or disapprove the entire budget or sections of the budget.
On June 19, Minister Singh tabled a financial paper as he is required to do. The statement of excess amounted to $4.6B, which saw the full restoration of funds to the Office of the President and portions to other areas in which cuts were inflicted such as the LCDS programmes, the CJIA project, student loan funds for the University of Guyana and the Amerindian Development Fund.
