Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 31, 2014 News
– APNU slams disparity
The Government Information Agency (GINA) is expected to receive a whopping $140 million in the 2014 budget whereas the country’s main drug fighting organization, the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit, will get $92 M to help with the war against illicit substance trade.
This move by government to pump more money into GINA and not properly fund CANU has garnered heavy criticism from the main Opposition party APNU. Opposition leader David Granger, at a press conference on Friday said that he believes that it’s unfair and that the budgeted allocation for CANU is inadequate.
Granger opined that this move demonstrates government’s neglect of public security. He criticized the lack of a National Drug Strategy Master Plan, which expired some five years ago, and with his dissatisfaction with the general management of CANU.
He said that his party was concerned in previous budget debates about the administration of CANU and the fact that it is run directly by Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee.
Granger noted that they were not convinced that is the type of management which security agencies such as the Guyana Police Force and Guyana Fire Service should be under.
He explained that the “inadequate structure” of CANU seemed to be more concerned about preventing drugs from leaving the country, rather than tackling its importation.
“That is the problem we’re having with CANU…there is no indication that CANU is being equipped to prevent the entry of drugs, particularly cocaine into the country.
“The Police marijuana unit just does a few marijuana raids; they are not involved in serious cocaine cracking down….too many important security agencies are being concentrated in a political ministry and too many things are being put on the Minister’s desk and I don’t think he can cope,” Granger posited.
In his budget presentation on March 24, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said that a new National Drug Strategy Master Plan is being finalised to enhance Guyana’s ability to combat drugs at the local, regional and international levels.
Despite threats from the Opposition over subsidies to the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN), the administration has again allocated millions of dollars in the 2014 National Budget for that entity.
NCN, a semi-autonomous agency, falls under the Office of the President. It is set to receive an $81.7M subvention. The complaints against NCN and the Government Information Agency (GINA) have been growing in recent years.
The Opposition parties, especially, have been complaining that GINA was heavily biased in its coverage. In the case of NCN, private television stations have been criticizing the fact that the entity has been allowed overtime to compete with them by attracting advertisements, yet the entity receives financial assistance from Government.
Already, the Opposition has warned that like the previous two years, it will be looking to amend the budget of both NCN and GINA.
The National Assembly, following the 2011 General and Regional Elections which handed the ruling party its first Parliamentary defeat in nearly two decades, has been grappling with the Opposition holding the majority. The Opposition in 2012 immediately reduced billions of dollars from the budget saying it was not satisfied with how the monies for a number of key infrastructural projects will be spent.
Last year, the cuts continued. Government restored the budget to both entities last year after a controversial court decision which said that the National Assembly does not have the right to make cuts.
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