Parliament not intended to be an accounting firm

The APNU/PNC coalition insists that the last elections brought a ‘new dispensation’ to the Guyanese people. It has done that all right: it has placed the inmates in charge of the asylum. Here you have a bunch of fascists obtaining the barest of majorities and immediately plunging ahead to degut every rule and tradition that were evolved over hundreds of years (in Britain and here) just to taste power once again.

The government puts forward a budget at the beginning of the year. It is not by accident that the quanta of spending for specific items are deemed to be “estimates”. With that in mind and allowing for unforeseen contingencies, the government is allowed to cover the latter eventualities from the eponymously named “Contingencies Fund”. They then return at the earliest opportunity to Parliament for the supplementary spending to be approved. Clear enough?
Evidently not to the inmates of the asylum that have taken over. They want details of the spending to the last penny. While this may sound okay to the average layperson, once the Parliament is not accusing the minister of finance of fraud or malfeasance, they’re supposed to approve the bill. The Parliament is not intended to be an accounting firm – as Ralph Ramkarran SC reminded just matriculated junior lawyer and long-time bookkeeper Christopher Ram – we have the Auditor General for that.
Well, some sanity seemed to have returned to the opposition benches after they were duly educated on parliamentary procedures by the government. One would have assumed that “Barry” Greenidge would have known of those procedures. But sadly he had to be slapped down by none other than new Speaker Raphael Trotman, who should be opposing him soon for the leadership of the PNC.
Greenidge’s motion (seconded by Ramjattan) was ruled to be out of order on trying to throw out one of the Supplementary Bills, which was finally passed in its entirety. So what was accomplished after all this carping and shouting by the inmates from the opposition benches? Just delaying the government from proceeding with its development plans for the country. But that is just what the fascists want – to create a crisis.