Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
May 05, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Those who know Donald Ramotar will confirm that he may get angry about certain things; he may not always be pleased by developments but he never harbours malice or ill-will against others. In that respect he is like Cheddi Jagan.
The outcome of the debates on the 2012 Budget has undoubtedly created a great deal of disaffection between the government and the opposition. But if there is to be progress within our country, not only does good sense have to prevail but ill feelings have to give way to a better understanding between the sides.
One of the ways for this to happen is for some communication to take place. Both sides cannot continue to be defiant. Both sides cannot allow the events of the Budget to place a wall between them meeting and talking.
Donald Ramotar is someone who is capable of being civil even in the present circumstances and it is hoped that a way can be found to ease the tensions between the government and the opposition because when there are tensions at the political level they infiltrates into the wider society.
Whether the President can convince those around him to be civil to the opposition is another thing but it is important for there to be some interaction between the sides.
The Speaker of the National Assembly can help. He has been trying to create a less antagonistic atmosphere in the National Assembly and he may be the one who can try to at least ease the tensions that have developed because of the cuts that were instituted by the opposition.
The Speaker is facing a great deal of criticism within his own party for his actions but even if it costs him his place in the party, he should persevere because he is also someone who does not harbour too much ill will against others.
The basis for any talks cannot ignore the problems generated by the cuts in the Budget and perhaps if there can be a meeting of minds on at least some technical issues this can lay the foundation for improved relations.
One of the things that the AFC and some of its advisers need is technical guidance. The AFC is now indicating that it slashed the LCDS budget because it was supposed to have been presented as a conditional appropriation and not as part of the main appropriation.
This is of course a post-cuts excuse. This was not part of the original explanation for the cuts. The incredulous and laughable reason given for the cuts to the LCDS was that the monies were not yet received and therefore could not be appropriated.
When this excuse was ridiculed it was said that what was needed was a conditional appropriation in conformity with Section 21 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act.
Many years ago, the former President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, asked the Head of the Privatization Unit to organize a seminar to educate a top business leader about the policies and laws guiding tax holidays. That suggestion backfired on the government when it was discovered that the very concessions which the government was defending, and which triggered the suggestion about the seminar, were illegal.
The Minister of Finance is an outstanding scholar, without question the most qualified Minister of Finance this country has ever had, and by far the most eloquent. He must now demonstrate political maturity by putting behind him all the ill will that was been generated by the cuts instituted on his Budget.
Especially for the AFC and its advisers, he should organize a seminar on Government Budgeting and Financing 101.
Such a seminar would clarify for the AFC the concept of conditional appropriations. It seems that in terms of the LCDS, the AFC is making a distinction between an ordinary appropriation and a conditional appropriation.
There is in fact no such distinction. The government does not table a conditional appropriation in counter distinction to an ordinary or main appropriation.
A conditional appropriation is intended for budget agencies which generates or receives revenues and which may need to utilize some of these receipts.
The purpose of the conditional appropriation is to ensure that the revenues are paid into the consolidated fund by these budget agencies and are not used without appropriation.
Thus, once an appropriation is made for a budget agency and provides as to how the receipts of that agency are to be used by that agency that appropriation becomes a conditional appropriation.
And this is made explicit by the Interpretation of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act which defines a conditional appropriation as an appropriation that may be supplemented by a specified amount of additional appropriation tied to the budget agency’s receipts.
This is why the appropriation for budget agencies usually refer to an authority to spend a specified sum and an additional authority to spend a specified sum which is conditional on revenues earned and which has to pass through the Consolidated Fund.
Once the original appropriation presented before the House was presented in this format, then it is a conditional appropriation. The whole purpose is to avoid budget agencies that generate receipts from spending without approval.
The Minister of Finance is not required to present two separate appropriations. He is required to present the appropriation in the required format for it to be considered as a conditional appropriation.
Also, the fact that the sums appropriated may be conditional on achieving certain levels of receipts does not mean that the monies have to be present before they are appropriated. In fact it is mainly because the receipts are not yet collected or are at best an educated guess that there has to be a conditional appropriation.
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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