Maintenance Projects will continue unhindered
─says Min. Patterson
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, January 9, 2020
The Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson has sought to dispel any concerns that maintenance of roads and public infrastructure will cease, due to the delay of the passage of the national budget, as a result of the upcoming March 2020 elections.
“With the general and regional elections being held in March 2020, this will result in the Ministry receiving one-twelfth of expenditure until a budget is approved in 2020. What the public should know is that our maintenance programme will continue unhindered,” Minister Patterson stated.
Minister of Finance, Hon. Winston Jordan had previously informed the public in 2019, that the budget cycle ends on December 31st and until the next budget is passed post-elections, the government’s ability to spend would be limited as government entities would only be operating on a one-twelfth fraction of 2019’s allocation in 2020.
As of 2019, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure was allotted $38.7Billion – one of its largest disbursements yet – of which $4.4Billion of funds that went unspent was returned to the consolidated funds. One-twelfth of the Ministry’s expenditure will sum up to more than $2Billion.
Minister Patterson further conveyed that the limited finances mean that the Public Infrastructure Ministry will be unable to take on new projects, however, the Ministry will work diligently to ensure that the needs of Guyanese are met despite constraints, as the government continues to ensure that public infrastructures are duly serviced.
“We will continue to protect and preserve our assets we would have invested on […] with the 1/12th no new projects are being done but on the maintenance side we will continue to maintain […] what we’ve built,” the Public Infrastructure Minister further assured.