Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira said yesterday that every ministry, without exception, received no more than 15 per cent of their request under the development programme.
Responding to Chief Justice Ivor Archie’s claim that funding for the judiciary’s development programme was slashed from the $393 million he requested to $42 million, she said the judiciary was treated in the same way as all other ministries.
Stressing that there were cutbacks ’across the board’, Nunez-Tesheira said: ’We all know that this year was a challenging one.... It is a difficult situation where your envelope is getting smaller. So we have equity and parity,’ she said at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.
She said with respect to recurrent expenditure, the judiciary got ’more or less all that was requested’.
But in terms of the capital budget, the economic constraints affected everyone, and in some instances, some ministries received even less than 15 per cent of what they requested, the minister stated.
She added that requests for capital development funding totalled $30 billion, and in total, some $7 billion was agreed upon in the context of appropriation from the Consolidated Fund.
Nunez-Tesheira explained that in making its decision, Government applied certain principles.
’In making decisions with regard to funding, we take in consideration first, ongoing projects, because clearly there are all kinds of obligations, contractual among them,’ she said, adding that the prioritising of ongoing projects was one of the first orders of business.
’New projects, particularly given the current environment, will be determined on the availability of funds. That is how it is always done. And certainly this year, it is a little more challenging and, therefore, there was a more robust application of that principle.’
Noting that Archie stated that there would be no roll-out of the family court because of the reduction in the allocation, Nunez-Tesheira said currently there was one family court on the way -the one in Port of Spain. She said the intention (ultimately) was to roll out new courts in Tabaquite and San Fernando and then another one in Tobago.
’So those...others would be new projects.... The budget request for the Port of Spain court was $28 million, and $13 million was allocated. And as we do with all requests, it is certainly subject to mid-term review and as and when required during the course of the fiscal year, the adjustment would be made.... That is what was done with all ministries, and the judiciary was no different...(it was) across the board.’
Asked whether a case could be made for the judiciary being treated differently from Government ministries because of its critical role, Nunez-Tesheira said: ’All ministries are important. No work is less important. The (same) principle was applied across the board.’
Information Minister Neil Parsanlal also said Government had established a team of ministers to prepare a response to the CJ’s address, and this response would be ready by today. In his address, Archie noted that some proposals in the draft Constitution, if implemented, could strip the judiciary of its independence.
