The annual drumbeat of bigger Budgets has appeared to have some inherent virtue. The size of the Budget has increased from $221 billion in the Coalition’s first year in office to $300 billion in Budget 2019, an increase of 36%. There has no doubt been many benefits from these vast sums which it must be remembered are contributed to a large extent by the people themselves.
Unfortunately, perhaps forced by the nature of a Coalition, Guyana has the largest number of Ministers per capita of any country in this Region. Large Government are usually expensive, bureaucratic and inefficient. It is a huge cost to impose on the people. By its nature too, it is virtually impossible to sanction any Minister when there is no possibility of replacement since some members of the Coalition are miniscule.
President Granger too seems to have a preference for large governments with ministries with unrecognizable names and undefined purposes, and a particular liking for the Army of which he was once in the leadership. Persons landed with important Ministries are clearly not up to the job, having had no training or experience in management. It is simply illogical that someone whose only experience is heading an office of a handful of persons heads a ministry with thousands of persons overseeing the spending of millions of dollars. Under this Administration, that is not particularly exceptional.