Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana Riding on the Crest of Truth
Last Updated on Thursday, 7 January 2016, 20:07 by Denis Chabrol
After a heated debated and s series of verbal exchanges on the floor of the National Assembly the Office of the Auditor General received approval for a budget of GYD$714M after requesting a GYD$790M budget.
It was explained that Finance Minister Winston Jordan would have presented the House with an expenditure budget of $714M after the Auditor General would have requested GYD$790M.
He stated that the monies cut were intended to support the accounting of resources that deal with transparency over public spending.
“We thought financial autonomy meant that once the constitutional agencies had determined their budgets that those budgets would come unaltered to this national assembly and passed unaltered…any attempts to reduced allocations would be seen as politicking,” said Jagdeo.
He said that what is playing out is the deluding of the Audit office in terms of jurisdiction and power by these surreptitious audits.
“So Mr Speaker we have heard so much about corruption and lack of transparency in this country and we thought this government would be interested in putting more money into the audit office,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Vice President Carl Greenidge defended the move saying that it is transparent and goes hand in hand with the law.
“The Leader of he Opposition must not come here and say that the Minister of Finance is changing without transparency…we have arrived at a process where whatever figure is brought to the house is passed by the House.”