(Trinidad Guardian) Colm Imbert’s over five-hour long budget presentation is coming under criticism for its length, with former finance ministers saying it was a form of abuse inflicted on the population. They said the speech could have been an hour.
Imbert spoke for a whopping five hours, ten minutes and 47 seconds on Monday as he delivered his 2024/2025 fiscal package to the Parliament and by extension the nation.
It was by far his longest presentation since assuming his portfolio in 2015.
His address in 2023 came in second, with his speaking time clocking in at four hours, seven minutes and 28 seconds.
At one point during Monday’s sitting, while the minister was still on his legs, St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen posted to Facebook, “It’s been 5 hours…and counting #BudgetPain.”
Even in attempting to settle down a restless Opposition bench before the four-hour mark, House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George at one time said, “So honourable members, I know it’s been a bit long, but I will ask you all to maintain the decorum you’ve been showing at the start.”
After indicating to Minister Imbert that he could resume, he said with a smile, “I have lots more to talk about.”
Earlier in the sitting Imbert acknowledged and even teased about his lengthy speaking time.
“It is not possible for me to speak on every activity, plan or programme of the Government, otherwise I’d have to speak for ten hours, apart from being impractical that would be unkind to the Leader of the Opposition who has tried without success to match my speaking time over the last nine years,” he said with another smirk.
The Opposition Leader has already indicated she will not be nearly as long as the Finance Minister when she responds on Friday.
But former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira believes the minister’s quips and smirks during his presentation are insults to a population that listens to the budget with bated breath.
Speaking yesterday, Nunez-Tesheira, who served from 2007 and 2010, said the budget statement almost felt like abuse, which the minister seemed to enjoy.
“It was not right, it was unfair, it was an abuse of the power that he has, which he knew he has, and it did not help that he was smirking and appeared to take some perverse pleasure in what he was doing. That may not be the case, but it did come across very much like that and I hope that it is the last time we ever have to hear a speech from that minister,” she argued.
The former minister said she usually kept her budget statements under three hours because the prime minister at the time, who himself served as a finance minister, would never allow anything longer.
“The (former) prime minister (Patrick Manning) would have not have allowed that, it would have not have occurred for me to do it because you are subjecting people to something that is unnecessary,” she added.
Meanwhile, another former finance minister believes the entire presentation could have been one hour long.
Brian Kuei Tung, who served under the UNC between 1995 and 2000 said, “My budgets used to be an hour long, a little more than an hour and some people regarded me as one of the better ministers of finance.”
Kuei Tung advised Guardian Media to look at other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom to see how long its government takes to present its budget.
In its 2023 Financial Statement and Budget Report, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt’s speech lasted only one hour and one minute.
In 2022, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who also serves as the Minister of Finance, spoke for around three hours and 40 minutes. That same year in Jamaica, Finance Minister Nigel Clarke’s budget presentation clocked in at three hours and ten minutes.
