Coalition’s Mahipaul blames workload for view that Opposition isn’t working

Called out on the failure of the APNU+AFC Coalition, as the Parliamentary Opposition, to effectively represent national interests, members of the Party buckled and blamed their failings on there being too many issues to deal with.

Coalition Parliamentarian, Ganesh Mahipaul, when pressed on the issue said, “Guyana is faced with a plethora of issues since the PPP took office…every day it is a new issue…..so I can understand that people are saying that the Opposition is not doing enough.”

Mahipaul also jumped to blame the use of oil money on the effectiveness of the APNU+AFC Coalition. He said, “Notwithstanding our limited resources, we are working on all the issue…we still continue to fight and represent… in a country with oil money, the allocation to the Office of the Opposition Leader has not been increased.”

Notably, all revenues from the oil sector are deposited to the Natural Resources Fund. At the end of March 2023, the balance in the NRF stood at US$1.465 Billion. As part of the Budget 2023 process, Parliamentary approval was granted for a total of US$1.002 billion to be transferred during fiscal year 2023. Pursuant to Section 16 of the NRF Act 2021, US$200 million equivalent to G$41.6 billion has been transferred from the NRF to the Consolidated Fund to finance national development priorities. In keeping with the NRF Act 2021, US$607.6 million was withdrawn in 2022 to finance national development priorities.