Airport expansion

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–    says Gov’t can avoid cuts if it comes clean–    Airport expansion, specialty hospital, LCDS face the axeThe Alliance for Change (AFC) plans to cut $36 billion from various sections of the 2013 National Budget, but says the government can avoid this by coming clean.The first cuts could begin tomorrow under the Ministry of Agriculture, for which the AFC intends to cut $814 million under Drainage and Irrigation, which has a total budget of $1.4 billion.The government has refused to act on an audit report, sent directly to the President, which detailed questionable transactions within the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and recommended the dismissal of senior officials. The auditor who compiled the report was sent packing.The AFC has signaled its intention not to approve spending for neither the Cheddi Jagan Airport Expansion Project for which $5.3 billion is proposed nor the Specialty Hospital for which $1.2 billion has been proposed. In addition, the party has indicated that it will slice funding for the Citizen Security Programme by $500 million, leaving the project with $143 million.From the electrification under the Prime Minister’s Office, the AFC plans to cut six of the $10 billion that is proposed.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, but the AFC wants that sized down to $700 million.And what comes as no surprise is that the AFC, as it did last year, is cutting down the subsidies to the state-owned National Communications Network and the Government Information Agency (GINA) to virtually zero.The party is required to give 24-hour notice of its intention to deny support for various categories of spending in the budget.That time was bought when the AFC and the other Parliamentary opposition parties Wednesday used their majority to push the consideration of the budget estimates to tomorrow.Ramjattan said the government can avoid the cuts if it simply comes clean on massive contracts which do not meet the test of transparency and accountability.“If we alter the budget it would be only because the explanations given by the government are unsatisfactory so as to justify the money it is looking for.“If the explanations given meet the standards of transparency and accountability, then we will not have to cut,” Ramjattan told Kaieteur News.The government was especially nervous about the budget proposals for the Office of the President and the Ministry of Home Affairs.The intention of the AFC regarding the Office of the President includes weeding out the super-salaries of some contract employees.In addition, the AFC has signaled its intention to cut $541 million from the Information and Communications allocation under the Office of the President. The sum of $4.5 billion was allocated for this project.Regarding the Ministry of Home Affairs, the AFC has slackened from the hardline position it took with regards to Minister Clement Rohee.The Opposition had moved a motion of No Confidence in Rohee and had said they would not cooperate with him.However, the AFC is not totally rejecting the budget proposals for the Ministry of Home Affairs.“We will not be irrational in altering the budget as the government suggests.“We will be extremely rational so that the taxpayers’ money is not misspent,” Ramjattan stated.The Opposition has proposed to eliminate the Sports and Arts Development Fund of $100 million 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.Cuts are also proposed in the sum of $224 million to the Board of Industrial Training.The East Bank Highway Project is projected to need $1.2 billion, but the AFC wants that budget cut to $539 million.  (Neil Marks)