Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 19, 2012 News
…following Granger, Ramotar meeting at OP
By Gary Eleazar
Following an early meeting at Office of the President between Head of State, Donald Ramotar and Opposition Leader David Granger, prior to yesterday’s round of sessions in the House, it was agreed that the old age pension increase as announced by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh will be increased further.
Dr Singh reported to the House that following the meeting for which a range of proposals was put forward by Granger, the Government agreed to make the increase payable from May 1.
The Finance Minister told the House that a delegation from A Partnership for National Unity had put forward a number of issues for discussion with the issue of old age pension increase gaining immediate favour with the President’s team.
Dr Singh said that Government will in the coming days be examining how to effect the necessary adjustments to fund the increase for the old age pensioners.
On Friday March 30, 2012, the Minister of Finance had announced a $600 increase for old age pension but despite his trumpeting the increase it was slammed as an insult to pensioners by the Combined Opposition.
Dr Singh in his budget presentation had said that the government would have increased the payable old age pension from $7,500 to $8,100 — a $600 increase that was scoffed at.
Following the first session of the House yesterday Granger explained what had transpired.
The Opposition Leader explained that at the end of the debates aspect of the 2012 Budget sessions APNU was invited to a meeting at the behest of Speaker of the House Raphael Trotman where both the Alliance for Change and Government were represented.
Avoiding Gridlock
Granger said that at that time it was recognized that there would be grave difficulties as it relates to Budget consensus as the legislators were about to sit in the Standing Committee of Supply where any cuts could be made to the budget.
This, he said, was unless some changes were made and drew reference to his budget presentation as well as the presentation of the AFC where it was expounded on that “there were some aspects of the budget which were not acceptable. It was in this regard that the speaker convened the meeting.”
Granger said that arising from that meeting certain decisions were taken with one such being to “seek a negotiated way out to prevent a collision which would delay the passage of the budget.”
The former brigadier in the Guyana Defence Force turned politician told this publication that “all we wanted to see was that some of the concerns that had arisen during the campaign and the interest which we were committed to ensuring were given representation in the budget and taken on board.”
Granger said that the meetings outside of the House were aimed to ensure that the Budget satisfies the will of the people and their interest. “This meant that concerns about old age pension, concerns about employment of public servants and concerns about the University of Guyana would be reviewed by the government side so that we wouldn’t attempt to proceed with a budget which left these important issues out.”
Granger said that this resulted in the meeting with President Ramotar yesterday morning, “and these matters were put on the table.”
Speaking directly to the figure of $10,000 for the old age pension effective May 1, Granger told this publication that “in politics and economics you never get total satisfaction about the things you asked for.”
Granger conceded that APNU is aware of the overall budget and “we do not feel that it is possible to increase the size of the budget, so we are looking to see what parts of the budget could be modified to provide funds for the items we feel are of much greater importance.”
He conceded that there can be no total satisfaction and that another critical agenda to be dealt with, was that of an increase in wages and salaries for public servants.
“We are looking for a negotiated settlement which means that we have to give and take; we have to compromise…We are satisfied that in our discussions we are representing the interest of the old age pension, of the public servants,” said Granger even as he alluded to some of the other concerns raised by the opposition which are still to be addressed.
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