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Even though Chief Justice Ian Chang (ag) ruled that it was unconstitutional for Minister of Finance,Cabinet Secretary,Dr. Roger LuncheonDr. Ashni Singh, to spend $4.5B of taxpayers’ monies which was disapproved by the National Assembly, Cabinet Secretary,Cheap NFL Jerseys, Dr. Roger Luncheon refuses to accept this decision.In a brief interview with Kaieteur News on Wednesday, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat was asked if he knew of the next steps government would be taking in light of the Chief Justice’s ruling or if it will close the chapter on the matter.Dr. Luncheon said that the ruling comes from a petition that is lodged by one of the opposition parties, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). On Chang’s ruling he said, “This was, I might say, an excursion, and I think we had better use that word guardedly, but his comments were an excursion.”The Cabinet Secretary said too, that advice was given which suggested that the parties to the application of a Conservatory Order did not address this issue of the constitutionality of Dr. Singh’s actions in restoring budget cuts through a Statement of Excess. Luncheon reiterated, “So it was an excursion by the CJ.”Asked to say whether he agreed with the findings of the Chief Justice’s “excursion”,Atlanta Falcons Jersey, Dr. Luncheon opted to say that one of his observations is that there are elements in the discourse that legal experts will have a field day commenting on.The Head of the Presidential Secretariat said that he made one observation,Wholesale Jerseys USA, and that had to do with when the opposition went to the Committee of Supply and gave zero appropriations for certain budgetary agencies.Finance Minister,Dr. Ashni SinghHe emphasized that it was obviously an error on the part of the opposition forces.“I don’t know what happened to Carl (Greenidge, APNU’s Shadow Minister of Finance) that day. I don’t know how you could give zero when there is a provision that provides for one-twelfth of the spending of the Appropriation Act. So if you wanted not to give anything, you had to concede that he (Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh) had every authority to spend up to a maximum of four months…So he had every constitutional right to restore the funds,” Dr. Luncheon firmly stated.In a previous interview with this publication, Chief Justice Chang had said that it is not his business to suggest any sanctions, though he found government’s actions to be in breach of the Constitution. He emphasized that it is a matter for the National Assembly. However, matters of the Tenth Parliament cannot be raised in the Eleventh Parliament. The only option left,Jerseys From China, he opined, is for the opposition to take the case up in a criminal proceeding.Though Chang had ruled that the government acted unlawfully, he declined to grant the Conservatory Order sought by the plaintiff,NFL Jerseys Supply, Opposition Leader David Granger. The order intended to prevent the government from spending more monies which did not receive Parliamentary approval.But the Chief Justice said that the order was “misconceived and must be dismissed.”He advised that a conservatory order must now (in 2015) relate strictly to future constitutional or statutory spending excess and not past excesses.The Chief Justice had also said that if the order was granted,NFL Jerseys Cheap, it would in effect be an injunction against Government spending permitted by the Constitution and the Financial Management and Accountability Act, rather than a conservatory order against non-approved spending for the past financial year, one, he noted, as “a classic case of the grant of an injunction as a conservatory order.”Chang had said that for those reasons, the application for an interlocutory conservatory order cannot be granted. |
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