The United Progressive Party (UPP) is hoping that Thursday’s Budget Presentation will shed light on some of the loan agreements into which the Gaston Browne Administration entered during its previous two terms in office, says General-Secretary Shawn Nicholas.
On March 2, Browne is scheduled to present to the Lower House the Appropriations Bill, 2023, which should outline how much money his administration intends to collect and spend this fiscal year.
During its last term, the Government took out a number of loans – including a disputed $500-million bond – and the UPP is expecting to hear more about these in the Budget Speech.
Nicholas, who is the Senate minority leader, says the UPP wants what is best for Antigua and Barbuda, and it is concerned that, in the current financial crisis, the Browne Administration continues to increase the country’s borrowings.
Following the presentation of the 2023 Budget, she says, she is hoping to have a clearer picture of how deeply in debt the country is; how its money was spent; and on what it was spent.
Senator Nicholas is also expecting that the prime minister, who is also the minister of finance, will announce measures to reduce Antigua and Barbuda’s debt stock.
Nicholas says the public sector, which is bursting at the seams, remains a major concern, and so she wants to know what the Administration will be doing to address this situation.
She says the private sector needs to be incentivized, which will allow it to take some of the employment burden off the public sector.
Accordingly, the UPP general secretary says her Party would wish to hear the Government’s plans for broadening the investment opportunities now available to business owners.
Additionally, Nicholas is hoping that Browne will speak to his administration’s plans for improving the public-health system, which is plagued with issues, including the infrastructure of the clinics and the lone public hospital.
Meanwhile, as more and more emphasis is being placed on The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands, Senator Nicholas notes that the public primary and secondary schools are being shortchanged.
But if students do not meet its matriculation requirements, she points out, the expansion of the University will be of little value to local young people.
The Government’s Throne Speech, delivered on February 20, was ridiculed by many residents, who dismissed it as regurgitation, a history lesson, and self-promotion by the Labour Party Administration.
Observers tell REAL News they, too, are waiting for the Budget Speech to say exactly what residents can look forward to – or not – this financial year, given that the Browne Administration just received a new mandate in the January 18 polls.
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Is she the 25% YOUTH quota promised by the party led by DEAD DARG PRINGLE??
No, but the following OLD SHOES who have long passed their SELL BY DATE were appointed by the ABLP:
Collin Brown
Samantha Marshall
Mary-Clare Hurst
Oscar Frederick et al……..
…..the turmoil in the UPP is wished, imagined or concocted but I suggest the MINIONS LIKE PETE buy a MIRROR from ASOT to see the true reflection or state in the ABLP:
ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
Your Honourable General-Secretary Shawn Nicholas, it is correct that the UPP are going to thoroughly scrutinise the ABLP’S Appropriations Bill for 2023.
Scrutinise by all means, but you’d do well to remember ABLP’S past records on financial accountability and openness – there wasn’t any!
However, if you want to listen to LOGORRHOEA, TOMMYROT and VERBAL DIARRHEA, then Gaston’s 🥸 your man …
Senator Nicholas appears like She wants Pringle job. Jamale Pringle should be talking about the budget not Nicholas. I heard Lovell will return and Pringle will be out. I was listening VOICE OF THE PEOPLE yesterday. No one in the UPP camp have any CONFIDENCE in Pringle. Cannot wait for Thursday. UPP Is in TURMOIL. The BLIND leading the BLIND. What a shame.
It’s time for MP Asot Michael to shine. Uneasy lies the head, that wears the Crown!
#PM Browne
once again the Hon. Jamale Pringle is SNUBBED and UNDERMINED! not even his own party believes in him. that interview he gave after the ceremony in parliament really embarassed himself and the UPP, so they are keeping him on a tight, short leash!
“none likkle bwoy a go rule me” …..Convention will tell it all
Sad isn’t it. A non-playing Captain.
She need to hush. She and Giselle already decide that Lovell is out and Pringle is in and the three of them have the party under their control.
They are not in touch with reality. UPP has gone to sleep with all the chupitness going on in the country especially with the African drama. Not a single word from them. Shaun is busy forecasting what Gaston bag of lies Budget would say while Rome is burning all around them.
They do not understand Antigua politics. Shaun is a joke. She should not be in the Senate. She needs to get her greedy useless backside out and give one of the hardworking candidates the position. UPP right now is like a ship without a sail and going OFF COURSE. They are not FOCUS on the reality around them.
WAKE UP, UPP. ALLYUH FAST ASLEEP.
@ UPP FAST ASLEEP
whoever you are, YOU ARE CERTAINLY NOT A UPP supporter or MOUTHPIECE, SO JUST SHUT YOU DAM ABLP AND MINIONITE TRAPPERS AND STUDY YOUR ABLP PARTY AND GASTON who are in a comatised state!!!
The Labourites are out in numbers when simple, common sense suggestions are on the table. They never come up with any alternative suggestions, just laimbrained, continous, mudslinging and imaginary problems.
We need answers. Nearly 100 borrowings, 11 billion collected in taxes and whatever was generated by the CIP program and we cannot see it. There was never any clarity on the 540 million borrowed and the 12 million from PLH, just Gaston Brown spinning all kinds of lies and Medford can’t tell his butt from a hole in the ground.
The audited annual report required by law has been missing and this lends itself to this government being corrupt and dishonest. And they would dare use the word “transparency!”
Excellent suggestions Senator, but I would not hold my breath. We can expect another barrage of voodoo economics, painting a rosy picture of an economy on the brink of ruin, and all kinds of imaginary numbers that only add up in Gaston Browne’s narcissistic, incompetent head.
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