Georgetown– Intensive debates on the 2011 National Budget with a size of $161.4B have been heating up since they kicked off on last Monday but President Bharrat Jagdeo is not too impressed in the way in which they have been conducted.
The President described the debate as ‘petty’“The problem is that too often become so petty in these debates that we lose sight of the vision where we want to take our country and how progressive we are taking it there. The budget every year takes us closer to that vision,” President Jagdeo said recenyly at the GDF officer’s conference.
President Jagdeo expressed surprise that the main opposition spokesperson on economics, questioned the rationale behind the One Laptop Per Family Programme (OLPF) and the criteria to be used.
“The criteria was announced and the money is in the budget… but to even question something like that… means you are seriously out of touch with what it takes to build a modern country,” President Jagdeo said.
The 2011 National Budget presented on January 17 allocated $1.8B for the OLPF which is spearheaded by Senior Project Manager Sesh Sukhdeo and includes a committee of stakeholders that is responsible for the roll out of the programme.
