BUDGET PLANNING MEETING GOES ON WITHOUT PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION

St. George, December 2, 2008 -- Finance Minister Nazim Burke says he's at a loss as to why the opposition was not represented at an all-party parliamentary committee meeting on Monday, in which proposals for the 2009 budget were discussed.

"I know that invitations were sent to everyone,'' Mr. Burke said Monday when questioned by reporters during a break in deliberations at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance.

The Committee, which is provided for under the Grenada constitution, comprises government and opposition members of the House of Representatives.  Members are required to meet to consider all budgetary items before they are tabled in parliament by the finance minister in the annual presentation of the Estimates of Expenditure.

Mr. Burke, who is also the Minister of Planning and Economic Development in the five-month-old National Democratic Congress government, said although notice of Monday's meeting was sent to the opposition New National Party, none of the NNP's four MPs attended the session of the Standing Committee on Finance.

"I did receive a copy of a letter written by the Leader of the Opposition in which he said he was not coming because he had to travel and, in any case, the notice was not long enough,'' said Mr. Burke, the MP for St. George North East. "We have no other indications as to why they are not here.  The fact of the matter is there is no law requiring us to provide notice beyond  the standard three days or so that are typical.''

Mr. Burke recalled that when the NDC was the opposition in parliament before the July 8 general election victory, NDC MPs "typically got notice on a Friday for the Finance Committee meeting on a Monday.''

He noted that in the case of Monday's Finance Committee meeting, the NDC administration of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas "gave at least one week's notice.  So we believe that that is quite adequate.''