Kamla sues finance minister over $2.3B appropriation

Former Attorney General Kamla Persad-Bissessar filed a lawsuit Friday agsinst Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira and Attorney General John Jeremie seeking to declare a $2.3 billion appropriation in the Finance (Supplementary Appropriation) Act of 2008, unconstitutional, null and void.

The lawsuit names Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma as the claimant. It's a follow-up to a pre-action protocol letter to Government sent on March 16, 2009.

The Siparia MP and Sharma are seeking orders from the court to:

1. declare the 2008 Act void
2. declare warrants for disbursement of funds under the Act void
3. freeze the Minister of Finance's power to issue any such warrant
4. compel the Minister to transfer the excess $2.3 billion to the Exchequer Account

The court document alleges that the 2008 Act seeking approval of $3.9 billion from the Consolidated Fund and into the Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) for future projects was unconstitutional because:

• no estimates of expenditure for the sum of $2.3 billion were laid in the House as required by the Constitution
• the Constitution does not allow for the sums to be appropriated in one financial year
• supplementary appropriation can only be sought where the allocated sums were insufficient to meet actual expenditure or where a need has arisen for expenditure
• there was no actual expenditure for the sums which the Government attempted to record in the accounts as actual expenditure since the Government clearly indicated that the transfer to the IDF was for future projects.

The legal documents stated that a summary of the revised estimates of expenditure under the IDF for fiscal 2008 totalled $5.5 billion.

Earlier this Week Sharma won a landmark case against the Manning government in relation to the government's failure to comply with the 1999 Freedom of Information act.

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