Financial paper relating to Contingencies Fund well within legally stipulated limit- Finance Minister

FINANCE Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, last Friday, tabled two financial papers in the National Assembly seeking Parliamentary approval for expenditure met from the Contingencies Fund late last year and to bring to account additional disbursements received from foreign funding sources in the latter part of 2011. In an invited comment after tabling the financial papers, Minister Singh described as blatant distortion and misrepresentation, the comments made earlier last week in the Stabroek News and by the Alliance For Change (AFC) on this matter.
The Stabroek News carried in its Tuesday, February 7, 2012 issue an article quoting extensively from Mr. Christopher Ram, a longstanding PNC apologist and mouthpiece, along with Mr. Carl Greenidge, who served as the PNC’s Finance Minister during the period in the 1980s when the Guyanese economy recorded its worst performances in the country’s history.
Subsequent to the Stabroek News article, earlier last week, the AFC also sought to misrepresent the facts surrounding these financial papers.
The Minister stated that, had these Opposition mouthpieces bothered to check the facts, they would have observed that the financial paper relating to the Contingencies Fund was well within the legally stipulated limit, and that the expenditure met was clearly in accordance with the law. Instead, these spokespersons chose to pre-empt the tabling of the financial papers, engage in irresponsible speculation, with the sole aim of misleading the Guyanese people.
Minister Singh further stated that, in keeping with Government’s commitment to prudent financial management, all of the expenditures incurred were in pursuit of important national development objectives.
Minister Singh concluded that the kind of distortive speculation that the Opposition spokespersons engaged in on this matter hardly inspire any hope that the Opposition has any serious interest in an objective and responsible engagement with Government.