Speeches in the National Assembly

“The Nation must have a budget and as Speaker of the National Assembly I will do my bit with respect to engraining the two sides to see how best we can ensure the process of the passage of the National Budget is handled with minimum fallouts or a chaotic situation”

Those were the words of Speaker of the National assembly, Raphael Trotman in a recent interview with iNews in his Chambers in Georgetown.

His comments came at a time when the Supreme Court of Guyana is looking at an appeal which was filed by the combined opposition parties following the ruling of the Chief Justice that the National Assembly cannot cut the national Budget but rather approve or disapprove line items.

He said that rulings of the court will be appealed from time to time and when it comes to the national Assembly and the budget cuts, the situation is no different. Trotman nevertheless pointed out that the rulings of the court will be respected.

According to the Speaker, he is looking to see how the issue could be resolved in a respectable and responsible manner without any chaos and confusion. Trotman explained that there will always be the debate with respect to what persons believe their roles and responsibilities in the National Assembly are as against the interpretation of the court ruling.

Trotman admitted that in such cases, differing views will not always mesh but at the end of the day the National Assembly has a responsibility not to go after crises, confusions and chaos but to see how best both points of view can be looked at in a way that will see the nation having its budget which is a necessity.