…brings total disclosed expenditure for 2009 to some US$690 MillionBy Gary EleazarFinance Minister Dr Ashni Singh will tomorrow present to the National Assembly two more financial papers requesting the House to approve in excess of $8B (US$40 million)? for additional expenditure ending December 31, 2009.According to the Order Paper for the sitting of the National Assembly dated January 7, 2010,Cheap Jerseys China, Dr Singh will present to the House Financial Paper No. 5/2009 – Supplementary Estimates (Current and Capital) totalling $1,449,775,Wholesale NFL Jerseys,969 (US$7.25 Million)– advances made from the Contingencies Fund for the period ending December 31, 2009.He will also table Financial Paper No. 6/2009 – Supplementary Estimate (Capital) totalling $6,795,982,309 (US$34 Million) for the period ending December 31, 2009.A breakdown of the expenditure was not provided.That money is in addition to four previous requests for supplementary provisions which totaled some $4,679,Jerseys China Wholesale,678,405 (US$23 Million) and the largest ever National Budget – in excess of $126B (US$630 Million).The manner in which the money is used from the Contingencies Fund has always been a source of dire criticism.Opposition Leader Robert Corbin recently chided the Finance Minister for spending money, then coming to seek approval from the House, which he opined was a means of rectifying the accounting books.“The fact that the Minister of Finance comes so regularly for supplementary provisions illustrates the point that we have been making at every budget debate, that it is unrealistic and unreliable and it is a smokescreen to the Guyanese people as to what really is the true position.”Corbin had conceded that it is a fact that some provisions relate to foreign input into the budgetary allocations, but explained that, “These were predictable and therefore it shows how unreliable and incompetent the Ministry of Finance is in terms of planning budgets.”To emphasise his point, Corbin stated that there were no new occurrences in the months of October, November or December to necessitate a sudden increase of millions of dollars in the security budget, “nothing significant has happened so it clearly demonstrates a lack of planning.”The Opposition Leader said too that it illustrated that “they (the administration) don’t want oversight…because when they come for supplementary provisions, many of the projects lack the project profile.”This, he noted, should be there for people to monitor and see how the provisions are being spent, “and sometimes when it comes so late they have already spent and are now coming for supplementary provisions to fill the gap for money they have already withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund.”This, Corbin had stressed,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, is a sham. “… They are now seeking to correct it,Authentic Jerseys From China, because there is a limit to which they can withdraw without approval from the Parliament.”Corbin also pointed out that the profiles outlined are put in such a way that there is an absence of scrutiny.“This allows them to carry on a number of activities and obviously there is a lot of room for corruption. There is a lot of room for lack of value for money and there is no oversight from the Parliament on what is being done.”Corbin had charged, “There is absolutely no effective planning so one can’t look in advance and see objectively what is happening.”“Certainly with the level of corruption and the level of pilfering that is taking place in the general award of contracts by the government, one must always view with suspicion,Wholesale Jerseys China, manoeuvres by the Ministry of Finance for the sneaking in through the back door money already spent.”He also pointed to what he called a “Parliamentary deficiency”, adding that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is only activated after money is spent “to see whether money is spent along the lines intended by the Parliament. The PAC generally looks at the Auditor General’s report, and having looked at that, they also question ministries based on those reports.”