Dear Editor,
Timely financial reporting create benefits to a nation. It is now almost April 2019 and we the people, the shareholders of this company called Guyana, still cannot receive from the Ministry of Finance that critical annual report of FY 2018 called the “End of Year Outcome 2018 Report”. This report provide the evidence on the 2018 financial performance and this is vital information. Since the FY 2019 Budget was nothing else but a document of guesstimates on both 2018 and 2019, it is about time the nation learn of the real situation when it comes to 2018.
This practice of planning for the economy on “Alice and Wonderland numbers” is a dangerous precedent for any country and this financial nonsense only started happening in 2015.
I am therefore humbly asking the media to inquire on the whereabouts of the report for 2018. Here is a copy of the 2017 report – https://finance.gov.gy/?cat=14.
I am advised that the Bank of Guyana has completed its FY 2018 Annual Report but cannot release it because they are awaiting the Ministry to publish their document first. What kind of a nation is this where the Central Bank cannot be seen to be acting independent and is functioning as if it is a political poodle? Is this why it has allowed the Central Government overdraft at the Central Bank to run up to close to G$60 billion? Here is the evidence (see Capital and Liabilities – Public Deposits- https://www.bankofguyana.org.gy/bog/images/accounts_budgeting/assetsliabilities.pdf.
Better must come!
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh