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– Such action will hurt country’s economy As the Alliance For Change (AFC) aims to cut $36 Billion from the 2013 National Budget, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) says that the AFC’s decision will hurt the country’s economy while leaving the Ministry of Home Affairs naked and the Sports and Arts Development Fund stagnated.The party further condemned the latest assault on the 2013 budget,J.A. Happ Blue Jays Jersey, Guyana’s largest, by the joint opposition alliance of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and AFC.During the press conference at Freedom House, PPP’s headquarters on Robb Street yesterday,Stephen Piscotty Cardinals Jersey, Minister of Home Affairs,Michael Conforto Mets Jersey, Clement Rohee and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Frank Anthony lamented on the proposed budget cuts which they say is not in the interest of the country’s development.Minister Clement RoheeMinister Rohee explained that the Ministry of Home Affairs has oversight of over seven departments and in the Budget that is being presented, under capital $50.8M and under current $136.5M adds up to $187.3M, this has been slashed by a proposed $96.5M cut which shrinks the amount to $90.8M.Underscoring one of the many areas affected, Rohee said the citizens security programme which was allocated $643M; there is now a $500M slash being proposed which would only leave $143M for the citizen security programme.“What is more critical is that the Ministry currently has 91 contract employees, they (AFC) have reduced this 91 by virtue of cuts to 23,Joe Panik Giants Jersey, so from 91 contracted employees,Hyun-Jin Ryu Dodgers Jersey, they are saying we must have 23. Now what is going to happen to those people?”Rohee questioned as he noted that these contracted workers’ job security are in limbo. “Who like to know their life is in limbo? You give me one person like that and I would probably exchange my job for yours … nobody wants to be in a position of job insecurity.”Further questioning how the Ministry will be managed with all the cuts, Rohee explained that persons who are hired for various positions can opt to be a contract employee or be a fixed established pensionable employee, thus these persons cannot and should not be penalized.“It is unfortunate that in Guyana we have the resources but we have an opposition who are bent on cutting those resources, placing workers on the breadline and depriving our people of necessary goods and services to positively impact their lives all because they are power drunk on a one seat dictatorship in the National Assembly…Faced with this reality,Darwin Barney Blue Jays Jersey, the opposition has now resorted to making a number of unrealistic demands from Government in order to save face with the public,” Rohee noted.“All responsible stakeholders should reject outright this outrageous attempt by the Opposition to hold Budget 2013 hostage and to hijack and stymie development in Guyana.”Minister of Culture,Santiago Casilla Giants Jersey, Youth and Sport Frank Anthony said the opposition proposed to eliminate the Sports and Arts Development Fund of $100 million which would be used for funding Cuban coaches, competitions and prize monies, Guyana Prize for Literature, republishing of books, publishing speeches of former Presidents,Mookie Wilson Mets Jersey, lecture series amongst many other programmes.Adding that cuts should not be made to cultural programmes and the arts, Minister Anthony said the opposition parties are making a serious mistake since the programmes would benefit a substantial amount of people in the country.“It is going to affect peoples’ lives and I would urge them to rethink their approach.”However, the opposition noted that unless the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport can come clean on how that same amount was spent last year and say what he proposes to do with that money this year there will be cuts. Cuts are also proposed in the sum of $224 million to the Board of Industrial Training.Other big projects the AFC plans to cut are those under the Low Carbon Development Strategy. The AFC plans to cut down those estimates from $20 billion to $1 billion.Further, the AFC has given notice to the Clerk of the National Assembly that it will not approve the more than $900 million that was asked for the Guyana Elections Commission under a heading called “other.”The government has proposed to spend $2.3 billion more on the Amaila Falls access road,Francisco Lindor Indians Jersey, but the AFC wants that sized down to $700 million. |
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