Budget enables gov’t to “live large, comfortable” – Manickchand

Former Education Minister Priya Manickchand says that she cannot support the 2016 Budget presented to the National Assembly by Finance Minister Winston Jordan since it doesn’t cater for all of Guyana.

Dubbing the budget a “stagnation budget” Manickchand delivered a blast of feral proportions to the Government.

“From what is said in the budget I think we can garner what is the framework of the budget – to make themselves comfortable, to live life large,” said the Parliamentarian noting that all of this will be done on the backs of the tax payers.

Pointing to the education sector, the MP stated that some of the items in this year’s budget, would have been featured in a PPP Budget 2 years ago.

“We have the nice fancy schools for our children and we have the training of teachers – so we are giving our children what the PPP wanted to give them,” she said adding “We support it’s a good idea what we are asking you to do is innovate and come up with good things for Guyana do not copy from 2014.”

The MP went on to question how exactly Guyana will be able to funds its education programs since donor funding for education has seen some reduction.

“How are we going to sustain the growth and even move forward?” she questioned.

Manickchand also called on government to table the Education Reform Bill that was squashed as a result of the dissolution of the 10th Parliament.

In the same vein she emphasized that it is imperative that teachers get the salary increases promised to them and for them to be given duty free allowances – which was also an elections promise.

In a sharp response to the PPP MP, Vice President Carl Greenidge said that much of what he has listed to is plain “cynicism and selective amnesia.”

He cited immaturity as he pointed out that the PPP would have also inherited projects from other administrations that it continued.

They are “speaking as though they never used or benefited from anything another government left…it shows a certain amount of immaturity,” said Greenidge.