Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton has said that the APNU+AFC Opposition is in no position to tell the PPP/C Administration how to lead Guyana, when it is unable to even decide on an opposition leader.
Minister Hamilton was the first government member to defend the $552.9 billion budget, the largest financial plan so far in the history of Guyana, when the National Assembly met Monday for the debate.
In his presentation, the labour minister chided the opposition for its criticisms of the budget.
“When you [the opposition] come to this National Assembly and you want to criticise government’s policy, you must be seen in the eyes of the public, being able to present yourself as a government in waiting. You are incapable of doing that,” he told the House.
Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Amanza Walton Desir, accused the government of not fulfilling its promise of providing free university education, and questioned the administration’s ability to execute massive infrastructural works over the next 11 months.
Minister Hamilton reminded the MP that the APNU+AFC imposed grave hardship on citizens including raising the University of Guyana’s tuition fees by some 35 per cent in three years, and discontinued the “Because We Care’ cash grant initiative.
“Under your tenure, we were an oil producing country and you did not train a single person in oil and gas and now you want to tell us who to train,” the Minister contended.
Minister Hamilton said in just one year, the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) has increased training from a mere 1,300 to 3,086 persons in over 100 technical and vocational areas.
The training programmes were taken to many hinterland and Amerindian communities for the first time.
This year, the sum of $448.5 million was allocated to BIT to train another 4,000 Guyanese.
In addition, technical officers were placed in all of the 10 administrative regions to spearhead the Technical & Vocational Education and Training (TVET) training programmes in preparation for new and emerging industries.
For the first time, every region with the exception of Region Eight, is equipped with a a labour department in an effort to safeguard workers’ rights by ensuring local and international businesses are in compliance with labour laws and regulations.
Minister Hamilton said it is under this PPP/C Administration that an OSH officer was able to visit the FPSO offshore for the first time to conduct inspections and ensure workers’ safety. Since then, 14 technical officers of the OSH department were trained and certified to conduct inspections in the oil and gas sector.
The Minister stressed that Budget 2022 will benefit every section of society through the many transformational projects slated to be done.
“Mr. Speaker, every measure, every programme, every project in Budget 2022 presented to the National Assembly and to the people of Guyana will change the lives of the Guyanese people and that is the record of the People’s Progressive Party Civic,” Minister Hamilton said.
