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Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Karen Cummings, described the 2020 budget as one that is out of touch with the Guyanese people. She said the big budget is defective, deceptive and discriminatory. According to Cummings, the 2020 budget shakes out every concern for the well being of the poor and leaks our funds for education, health and housing. This is the narrative that her fellow opposition colleagues have been carrying for the last three days. “Mr. Speaker, this budget, when stripped of the verbiage, shows that nothing new has been proffered, there are no transformational projects.” The actual projects listed, she said, are resurrected ones from her administration and the entire budget is not futuristic, but, ‘lacks vision, lacks clarity, devoid of interest, and has no strategic approaches to guide and make this nation a prosperous one and Guyana great again.”
Cummings argued that as was promised by the PPP during its election campaign, the budget has no guide how jobs will be created, how a macroeconomic nation will be created and how poverty will be alleviated. In contrast, its ambiguous nature, shows the government will be returning to reckless spending with little or no accountability, the MP said.
Dr. Cummings then took a large portion of her allotted time to remind the PPP and the nation at large, of the strides made by her former administration to significantly improve Guyana’s public health sector, a sector she once served in. She boasted that Guyana is on the cusp of being declared filaria -free, the successful passage of the Tobacco Control Bill, the reduction of the suicide rate, improvement in eyecare and the fight against neglected diseases, increase in drug availability in the various health facilities, construction and rehabilitation of several health facilities including hospitals and most importantly, the construction of the first Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. She urge the PPP Government to think Guyana first by picking up the visionary baton from the Coalition as health is a nation’s wealth. She urged the Ministry of Public Health to forge ahead with the Smart Hospital Initiative amongst other projects that were already in the pipeline. “Mr Speaker, this budget fails to address the health needs of the Guyanese people, it needs to be returned to sender. The APNU/AFC Coalition recommends that there be a health system strengthening to provide vital information, resources, empathy, and support to the most vulnerable population,” Cummings who was the former junior Minister of Health affirmed.
