Dear Editor,
In the Accountability Watch column of December 10 in the Stabroek News, I expressed deep concern about the continuing practice of having deficit budgeting which results in a progressive increase in the overdraft on the Consolidated Fund. Having examined the reports of the Auditor General for the years 1992 to 2017, I estimated that the overdraft would reach $210 billion by the end of 2019. I had produced a table showing how I arrived at this figure. This table was compiled using the audited public accounts for the years 1992 to 2017 and the anticipated deficit for 2018 and 2019.
The Minister of Finance is reported to have disputed the above figure, claiming that the Governor of the Bank of Guyana has confirmed that as of 7 December 2018, the overdraft on the Consolidated Fund was $62.157 billion. Readers are, however, directed to page 479 of the 2017 Auditor General’s report which shows the Statement of Current Assets and Liabilities of the Government as at 31 December 2017 prepared by the Accountant General and duly certified by the Minister of Finance.
In that statement, the new Consolidated Fund Account No. 407 and the old account No. 400 showed overdrafts of $109.1 billion and $46.8 billion respectively, giving a total overdraft of $155.9 billion. Readers are also referred to pages 28-29 of the Auditor General’s report where these two figures are repeated, and there is a graph showing the movement of the overdraft on these two accounts from 2004 to 2017.
Grateful if you will publicise the above clarifications so as to set the records straight.
Yours faithfully,
Anand Goolsarran
