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Mark Phillips

Mark Phillips

June 15 ,2021

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The National Assembly yesterday approved a $10 billion supplementary allocation to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) for flood relief including repairs to infrastructure and for supporting recovery in the productive and household sectors.

The sum which has been added to the current allocation for Disaster Pre-paredness, Response and Management is expected to be utilized by the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) for the provisions of hampers, the establishment and maintenance of shelters and the emergency rehabilitation of key roads and bridges.

It however remains unclear just how much is being allocated for any one of these activities.

Repeated requests from members of the opposition for Prime Minister Mark Phillips to disaggregate the emergency funds were sidestepped.

“There is no disaggregation at present since the assessment is not completed…We are currently in the relief phase and planning for recovery. This expenditure will cover food hampers, repairs to roads and drainage and irrigation,” Phillips told the House.

Asked to provide estimates of what percentage of the $10 billion will be used for any of these areas, Phillips said the assessment was still being done by the CDC.

According to PM Phillips there are 30,000 households affected by flooding across the country. He explained that as of yesterday the CDC has distributed 21,935 food hampers and 18,654 cleaning hampers but again could not say how many hampers are provided for in the $10 billion allocation.

“Let’s not get into the weeds,” he said when asked for details. .

Noting that the Ministry of Public Works has also approached the House for funds, APNU+AFC Parliamentarian Annette Ferguson asked Phillips to explain what infrastructure works will be funded by this allocation.

“How did you arrive at the sum of $10 billion?” she asked to which the PM responded that the PPP/C government as a responsible government had approached the house for $10 billion as an initial sum.

He explained that once the CDC has concluded its damage and needs assessment it will be laid over in the House, in the interim all works are an emergency.

“We have to do this right away. Bridges and roads must be repaired,” Phillips responded, though he did not name any of the roads or bridges which would be part of these emergency repairs.

The allocation for OPM was part of a $23 billion supplementary allocation approved by the assembly without amendment.

The allocation included a $13.6 billion increase in current spending and $9.6 billion in Capital Spending.

While funds for flood relief represent the largest current expense, a $1.5 billion allocation to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) represented the largest capital expense.

According to the explanation provided this sum represents continued sup-port for the restructuring of the sugar industry.

Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha told the House that the $2 billion allocated to GuySuCo in the 2021 Budget is “almost exhausted” with only 40% of the sector restructured. He added that the extra sums are required for the government to uphold its promise to reopen the estates closed under the APNU+AFC government.

In providing a disaggregation of the sum to be expected, Mustapha listed a series of equipment including long-reach excavators which will be purchased for each estate.

Skeldon and Enmore will each receive $40 million for the purchase of these excavators while Rose Hall will receive $292 million for the purchase of a long-reach excavator as well as a 200 horsepower tillage excavator, various ploughs and 100 cane punts among other pieces of equipment.

At Albion $718 million will be spent on a long-range excavator, drones, an aluminium boat, cane tug, tractor as well as material for road repairs among others. Similar expenditures at Blairmont will reach $149 million and $259 million at Uitvlugt.

House approves funds for vaccines, offshore patrol vessel



The National Assembly yesterday approved $1.9 billion which had been charged to the Contingencies Fund between April 1, 2021 to June 8, 2021.

The sum included $1,283,250,000 for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines under the Ministry of Health’s Family and Primary Health Care Services.

According to Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony the sum represents $957 million spent for 200,000 doses of Sputnik V and $326 million for 100k doses of Sinopharm.

Anthony, who for more than an hour was questioned on the allocation, assured the members of the House that the government had secured the vaccines in a timely manner and at the best possible price. He stressed that it was impossible to budget for this allocation as no vaccines had been placed on the open market ahead of the passage of Budget 2021.

“How could you put it in the budget when you don’t know the price you are going to pay for it? How could you put it in a budget when we don’t know the source where we are going to get it from?” the Health Minister declared in response to questions from Opposition member Tabitha Sarabo-Halley.

The Minister explained that Guyana has sourced the Sputnik V vaccine through an agreement with the United Arab Emirates while Sinopharm is being purchased from the supplier.

He stressed that because of government’s efforts Guyana currently has the highest vaccination rate within the Caribbean with more than 44.3 % of the adult population having received at least one dose.

He stressed that while Sputnik V has not received the same international emergency use approval as Sinopharm and others, it is in the process of acquiring same.

Also approved as part of the same financial paper was  $5.4b in Capital Expenditure by the Ministry of Home Affairs to purchase motorcycles for anti-crime patrols. The Guyana Defence Force’s Defence and Security Support programme $618 million advance payment for the procurement of an offshore patrol vessel was also approved.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira told the House that the GDF expenditure represented the first payment on a US$11.5 million purpose-built offshore patrol vessel from the United States company, Metal Shark.

While the minister declined to reveal the use of the vehicle for “security reasons” she explained that it will be part of the Coast Guard’s fleet patrolling Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

“We have a border issue. We have our waters where there were incursions. We have one old vessel and, therefore, a decision was taken to acquire a new one,” she told the Committee of Supply.

Django

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