Yesterday, the senate considered the Finance and Audit (Reform) (Amendment) Bill, 2021. It seeks to establish a Contingencies Fund which would be used for urgent and unforeseen expenditure. Sounds practical enough, but that expenditure would be authorised by a special warrant under the hand of the Minister of Finance. Now, that's the same thing the then PUP opposition took Prime Minister Dean Barrow to the Supreme Court for - and won! They said it was unauthorised spending from the consolidated revenue fund because it was not pre-approved by parliament. Well, this bill makes a carve out for just that type of unauthorised spending - which is why the three new UDP Senators made a slight push back against it yesterday:
Hon. Ashton McKenzie - UDP Senator
"Several ministers of government have made mention that last year there was a lot of reckless spending in the name of COVID and that we spent 500 million plus of monies that we didn't have and all that sort of thing but here we are with a proposed amendment that basically looks to give the government, the minster of finance in particular the authority to spend any amount in the name of emergency."
Hon. Eamon Courtenay - Leader of Gov't Business in Senate
"The point I make is one, the constitution contemplates this, two the finance and audit reform act itself creates the consolidated revenue fund, the development fund, special fund and now we're saying the contingency fund consistent with section 117 of the constitution."
Well, the opposition position won support - and when the bill went back to committee, the leader of government business agreed to amendments - which now have to go back to the House. Last night on Uncut, Jules Vasquez asked Senator Bradley about the use of soft power:
Darrell Bradley - UDP Senator
"Remember in terms of the opposition, we can't block legislation, we can yell all we want, we can scream all we want, call names all we want but at the end of the day the government has the mandate and they have the numbers to pass a bill. I think in approaching the political realities within that context, it make sense you will offer your comments in a way that is conciliatory and tries to affect the legislation in a positive way, which was the result of this morning's proceedings."
