The Budget no longer holds terror

Mar 26, 2013 Editorial

Yesterday was Budget Day. There was a time when people looked forward to the budget because they had hopes of a pay rise, a drop in taxes and some even looked at the budget to anticipate movement in currency.
Those old enough would remember the days when Guyana had what it called a “basket of currency”. The Guyana dollar was tied to the major currencies and moved accordingly. But the time came when even that could not be sustained and so was subject to devaluations. This was something that people waited to see.
These devaluations reduced many people to near paupers. Those who had large sums of Guyana currency in the bank to buy foreign currency found that there was so much less foreign currency that they could buy. Then began the game of cat and mouse; as Budget Day approached people withdrew their money and sought to buy foreign currency on the black market. Pretty soon people were keeping their money in foreign currency or in assets.
But there were those who just had money for the sake of money. These paid a hefty price.
Budgets no longer command the interest they once did. Instead, people are more interested in tax breaks by way of an adjustment in the income tax threshold. They are also interested in adjustments in their minimum wage. For example, the government had signaled that it was going to have a standard minimum wage.
Ever since the government was presented with a parliamentary minority, though, the budget has created other interest. The parliamentary opposition says that it is keeping an eye on spending in light of charges that there is widespread corruption in Government circles.
Indeed, there have been many cases of monies being allocated but not spent as the budget stipulated. For example, there were budgetary allocations for the construction of airstrips at Leguan and Wakenaam. However, despite the allocation no work was done in 2010. This was money that could not have been diverted so the truth was that while it was voted and not spent, it represented funds that were put in cold storage, inaccessible to the nation for its development.
Road works were planned and not executed; other works were identified but there was nothing to ensure execution. More recently, the Public Accounts Committee began examining some expenditures voted for in the National Assembly. The committee is now finding that many contractors were overpaid. To make matters worse, the overpaid sum is not being recovered. This means that the national treasury is paying out sums for which no work is done.
These discoveries have only served to heighten the imagination of the opposition who are now questioning the various allocations. Not being accustomed to being questioned in a manner that could see amendments to the budget, the government is not happy. It has been critical of the opposition but the nation firmly believes that there should be some accountability.
Let it be known that the opposition participation in the budget debates has seen modifications in even after the budget has been passed. Last year there was a budgetary vote on old age pension. The opposition was not happy with the amount and caused the intervention of President Donald Ramotar. The result is well known; old age pensioners began receiving $10,000 per month.
Up until the government found itself in a minority position it passed allocations regardless of the objections. Still fresh in memory is the allocation for the One Laptop Per Family project. There was no objection because the opposition felt that such opposition would have been fruitless. It turns out that the Chinese are funding the second tranche. There should therefore be no budgetary allocation in this area. But if there is, surely the opposition would be forced to vote against it.
Now we come to the sensitive issue. The courts contend that the opposition cannot tamper with allocations. This would be interesting if there is an allocation for the One Laptop Per Family project.

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