Georgetown: Government will next week table the Constitution Amendment Bill, which seeks to grant financial autonomy to several service commissions as well as the Chamber of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
The Bill, which will be tabled by Attorney General Basil Williams, seeks to amend the Third Schedule relating to Article 222A of the Constitution to provide financial autonomy to: the Judicial Service Commission; the Public Service Commission; the Police Service Commission; the Teaching Service Commission; the Public Service Appellate Tribunal; the Public Procurement Commission; the Office of the Ombudsman in addition to the aforementioned.
According to the explanatory memorandum, this Bill seeks to amend the Third Schedule to the Constitution to add the named entities with the intention of enhancing the functioning of those entities by guaranteeing and strengthening their administration and control of monies allocated to them to carry out their functions pursuant to the Constitution.
Government will also table the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act to support the constitutional amendment by the insertion of the following sections as Sections 80B, 80C and 80D-80B. (1) The public officer responsible for managing the affairs of an agency or such other person designated by the appropriate authority for that purpose, shall submit budget proposals to the Clerk of the National Assembly (copied to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Minister of Finance) who shall ensure that those proposals are submitted as presented and in the case of the Audit Office, the budget shall be submitted to Parliament through the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee.
The Minister of Finance shall submit to the National Assembly, the Minister’s comments on the annual budget of a constitutional agency, including recommendations in sufficient time to enable consideration by the Assembly and those recommendations shall be limited to the overall request rather than line items. According to the amendment, submission shall be made in accordance with Section 79(1) and prior to the commencement of the fiscal or calendar year, as the case may be, for the approval of the National Assembly.
The format of the annual budget of the constitutional agencies shall be as determined by the head of each agency in consultation with the Minister of Finance. Besides, detailed budgets and appropriations shall be reflected in the Annual Estimates together with detailed estimates of revenues and expenditures of the constitutional agencies.
Additionally, notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection 5 and consistent with Article 222A of the Constitution, the annual budget appropriation for the constitutional agencies shall be included in the Estimates of the Public Sector as Subventions to Constitutional Agencies (similar to those for Subsidies to Local Organisations) reflecting the following for each agency: programme and agency description, budget for the previous year and budget for the current year.
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