Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 19, 2012 Editorial
The 2012 budget is perhaps one of the most scrutinized given that the government for the first time in its history cannot pass this budget carte blanche. In the past the budgets would be passed without any amendment despite the protestations of the opposition. The government would listen to the objections in the committee of supplies and simply vote for what it had put in the budget.
The Hansard is replete with objections and arguments to support those objections but the government prevailed because of its parliamentary majority. Today the situation is different. The opposition parties have zeroed on certain aspects that they say represent instances of the government padding accounts to facilitate “the boys”.
One case that has come under scrutiny is the budgetary allocation for the Government Information Agency and the National Communication Network. These are two media agencies that compete with the private media on the local market. NCN has a distinct advertising advantage because businesses are more prone to support the radio station for fear of government victimization.
Member of Parliament of the Alliance For Change, Katherine Hughes, in her budget debate noted, “GINA received $111.496 million last year and has been allocated an increase to $130.398 million in this year’s estimates.
“In addition to GINA, NCN in the estimates who received $70 million last year has now been allocated $81 Million.
“I have in my possession a letter from the CEO of NCN who boldly points out in a letter to the AFC dated March 19, 2012, that NCN is registered as a company incorporated under the Company’s Act 29 of 1991 and receives over 90 per cent of its income from advertising. “
The message is clear. If one were to recognize the subvention as revenue then that sum represents ten per cent of what NCN earns from advertising. And that is an awful lot of money.
The government need not subsidise these entities. The private media entities are out there challenging, and more often than not, doing a better job than the government-owned media without the hundreds of millions of dollars in subvention.
The government should not be annoyed that the opposition now wants to see these media entities operating under conditions to the others who are doing better than surviving and tapping into the same advertising market.
Another objection has to do with the contract workers. The government has been in the habit of contracting out jobs and paying what the late President Cheddi Jagan once described as super salaries. These people are paid their pensions and gratuities even as they remain on the job. The opposition parties contend that some of these jobs are in effect public service jobs and the positions should be occupied by public servants. They are challenging the number of contract employees.
Needless to say, for the first time in its history the government has taken to the streets to protest in support of its own budget. Surely, with the majority of the people in Guyana voting for the opposition the government must operate in the interest of those people.
But there is a sad episode. The government had no objection or no compunction about using its public servants to take to the streets. Some of them even reported that the government threatened them with dismissal if they did not turn up outside Public Buildings to demonstrate a protest against any move to cut what the opposition sees as “fat” from the budget. And indeed there is a lot of fat.
None can deny that there are people who are paid fat contracts to do little or nothing. In some cases these are rewards for political work well done. The parliamentary opposition has zeroed in on these people and wants to see them trimmed.
But the government says that the opposition’s demands are threatening jobs. And even if they do, some of the people are making no contribution to the national economy outside of the taxes deducted from their salaries and wages.
But this situation is going beyond cutting money from the budget; it is about diverting funding to the poorest of the poor—the senior citizens and the infirm. That, in the opposition view, would make it more socially acceptable.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
Apr 20, 2024
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