Georgetown: The National Assembly met Monday where it dissolved into the committee of supply to review the budgetary allocations for the Office of the President and Ministry of the Presidency after which the allocations were approved.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon, when asked to explain why allocations for the Government Information Agency (GINA) was listed under the Office of the President and the Office of the Prime Minister, explained that the $80 million allocation was for the period January 1 to August 31. He explained that at the end of August, the responsibility for GINA will fall under the umbrella of the Office of the Prime Minister, hence the allocation of $63 million under the Office of the Prime Minister.
The budget for the Ministry of the Presidency includes allocations for the Natural Resource Management, Citizenship and Immigration Services, therefore the respective ministers were called upon to defend the allocations.
Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman explaining the allocation of $421M for Natural Resource Management, was asked whether either of the contracted employees were responsible for training. Minister Trotman responded in the negative but explained that training is conducted by a special school established by the Geology and Mines Commission in 2013.
Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix defending an allocation of $262M for the capital and current expenditure of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, faced questions on a $150M allocation for capital works. He explained that the figure reflected works on a project that is underway to upgrade the records for the General Registrar's Office. Further, this project will see records dating as far back to 1920 being computerised along with computerisation of the office.
Some of the projects that will be executed from the allocation for the Ministry of the Presidency are; $18M for the opening of new lands for agricultural purposes and land regularisation; approximately $8M for the Information and Communications Technology project that caters for the completion of wireless and terrestrial networking from Moleson Creek to Anna Regina and the purchase of laptops and equipment.
There is also, a $11.4M subvention to the Guyana Energy Agency that caters for a solar grid tied demonstration project in Georgetown, and solar street lighting along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
The Civil Defence Commission will also benefit from $22M which caters for the provision of disaster preparedness and response initiatives along with the purchase of equipment for the Alternate Emergency Operation Centre, Timehri and the strengthening of the Disaster Risk Management Capacity.
Meanwhile, $715M was approved for the Public Service Ministry. Minister of State Joseph Harmon, successfully defended the allocation of $11M for the provision of security services, which represents a decrease of $7M from 2014.
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