APNU amends position on Home Affairs allocations

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:02 by GxMedia

Carl Greenidge MP

The APNU has retreated from its hard position that it would not approve allocations for the Ministry of Home Affairs as long as Clement Rohee retained responsibility for that portfolio.

After efforts to oust and silence the minister within the National Assembly failed the coalition announced several months ago that it would not be supporting business brought to the House in his name or approving any allocation for his ministry.

With consideration of the 2013 budget estimates set to begin on Monday and GUY$17.5B earmarked for the security sector, party officials were Friday asked at a news briefing if that position remained the same.

“We’re trying to find a means for dealing with this matter that is not going to disrupt the public, so it’s a question of trying to strike a balance here. That’s a principle which I think is a principle for most members of the public they’d embrace. The difficulty is to just try and find a modality for dealing with that that would not cause disruption and alarm out in the streets, we’re still working on that,” APNU’s point man on finance Carl Greenidge said.

The AFC for its part had said that it would consider each allocation on its merit and reserved the right to approve or disapprove them.

In light of that previously announced position the government had placed the Ministry of Home Affairs at the top of its list of agencies to be scrutinised when consideration of the estimates begins. However, that proposal was defeated and the opposition’s was adopted with the non-contentious Foreign and Legal Affairs Ministries leading the schedule to be examined from Monday.