Dear Editor,
Finance Minister Winston Jordan has presented the 2019 Budget. It is commendable that he was able once again to do so before the end of the fiscal year. One clear advantage of an early budget is that it allows for a full year to implement the government’s capital programme, in particular those large projects under the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP).
Given the size of the capital programme, my concern has to do primarily with the ability of the administration to spend the money within the allocated period. Past experiences have demonstrated an extremely weak implementation capacity and a tendency to rush spending at the end of the year in order to avoid the money going back to the Consolidated Fund. This is fraught with all kinds of dangers including breaches of procurement procedures and a proclivity for corrupt practices.
It is good to mobilize resources for developmental purposes but it is much better to ensure that the money is well spent in keeping with the budgetary objectives. The introduction of Programme Budgeting under the previous administration allowed for monies to be spent in a much more targeted and focused manner. However, there is hardly any way of knowing whether or not the objectives of the several programmes were met or to what extent. The national budget is in effect a national workplan for a given year and it is important that some kind of evaluation be done to determine the extent to which the workplan of the government is being met. Such analysis should be submitted to Parliament and done by an external agency to avoid any conflict of interest tendencies.
At a more fundamental level, the budget should contribute to a better life or what the administration refers to as ‘the good life’. It is difficult to see how this could be realized given the structure of the budget which is anything but pro-poor. Enough emphasis is not placed on job creation and on poverty alleviation measures.
I look forward to the budget debates in the National Assembly. The APNU-AFC would have a tough time to explain its failure to grow the economy and create the requisite conditions to realize the good life it promised the Guyanese people.
Yours faithfully,
Hydar Ally
