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GPL AND THE BUDGET CUTS
Apr 25, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The issue of GPL and the subsidy that it wants from the government must be de-linked from the issue of the Opposition deciding on the level of the subsidy through what is being termed as “budget cuts.”
Those cuts are unconstitutional and will be so deemed by the courts. The Opposition is not responsible for managing the affairs of Guyana. The government is.
The constitution allows for a party that wins a minority of the total votes cast to form the Executive. So why would it then restrain that Executive by subjecting its Budget to amendment by the legislative arm? This would be another way of allowing the legislature to both determine and approve the Budget.
The Constitution of Guyana also allows for members of the National Assembly, including Opposition members to table Bills before the House. But these Bills do not become policy or law unless they are sanctioned by the President thereby preserving the right of the Executive to be in charge of the governance of the country.
Further, the very Constitution that grants to private members the right to lay Bills before the National Assembly also places certain limitations on the types of Bills that can be tabled without the consent of Cabinet. Article 171 (2) makes it clear that no Bill that imposes or increases any tax or which imposes any charge on Consolidated or any other public fund, may be proceeded with unless with the approval of Cabinet. The expressed purpose of this limitation is to grant sovereign autonomy to the government to administer the financial affairs of the country.
The role of the Opposition when it comes to the Budget is strictly to exercise scrutiny. As with all Bills, the Appropriation Bill requires approval and the Opposition may use their powers not to approve but they surely have no power to amend, cut or reduce the estimates.
The separation of powers goes to the very heart of constitutional government. But this is not understood or is being conveniently ignored by the Opposition. As such Guyana has been placed in a most uncomfortable position, one in which now there is a discommodious relationship between the arms of the State. Guyana should never have reached this stage after twenty-eight years of democratic and constitutional rule.
But this relationship will hopefully be remedied by the judiciary in due course. In the process it is hoped that the Judiciary will impress on the Opposition that it is the courts that are intended to adjudicate on constitutional disputes. The right is granted by the constitution itself and for the decisions of the courts to be ignored in the name of parliamentary sovereignty is an affront to constitutional rule and must be made right.
We have had in our past a situation where the flag of the ruling party flew over the Court of Appeal. We must not ever end up in a situation where the mace of Parliament hangs over our Supreme Court. The judiciary must be subject to and subject only to the Constitution.
Once the principles of constitutionalism are preserved, the GPL issue can be better considered on its economic merits. The Opposition does not have the power to cut the subsidies to the GPL, but their decision to do must be seen not as an act of uncaring Opposition that is out to deprive citizens of electricity, but of an Opposition that has serious concerns as to why the GPL should be receiving such a massive subsidy each year from the government.
Four billion dollars a few years ago was high subsidy indeed. But to ask now for eleven billion dollars is really asking too much.
GPL has to be put on a sound financial footing. It has to show cause why it deserves these subsidies.
If it is made to feel that it will each year ask the government to bail it out of its losses and it will be granted these subsidies without any conditions attached, then the GPL may not become highly motivated to become a profitable venture.
The Opposition has not cut off funding for GPL. It is simply doing what it did last year, approve a provisional sum and then if GPL runs short it can come back later in the year via a supplementary provision for more funds. Is this not what happened last year?
The problem is that the Opposition is exercising this influence by employing a means that the courts have deemed unconstitutional. It is doing so by exercising what it says is its right to amend the Budget.
It is respectfully submitted again that no such right exists under the Constitution.
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