Does the Finance Minister know what he is doing?

Oct 17, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor;
Harry Truman, a military man was one of the most uncharismatic human beings, yet he was one of the most effective leaders at getting things done for his people.  Reading the 2015 Auditor General Report one was not surprised by the 5 months underperformance of the Ramotar government; they were an illegal government serving under a prorogation order.
However, it was shocking what 7 months under President Granger, (who won the elections) delivered.  A government is as good as its first 100 days and if this was President Granger’s 100 days, then God help Guyana. Current revenue fell short in 2015 by $741 million and capital revenue by $5,575 million compared to their respective budgeted amounts.
When a nation cannot collect on its revenue but continues to spend on parades and marching parks like there is no tomorrow, then it means there will be less money for real police services, real health care services, real services to the poor and the vulnerable and most importantly real educational services. Can you understand why President Granger cannot face the Teachers’ Union (GTU)?
I would want to excuse the transition from one government to another as the reason why the committed IDB project pipeline was under-spent by some G$3,178 million in 2015. But what will be the excuse in 2016 as these projects in the pipelines continue to be under-spent? Looking at another performance indicator, one can find that Central Government’s current expenditure was under the 2015 budget allocation by G$25,785 million.
There goes the “G” in Economic Growth. Upon further review one finds that this shortfall was mainly due to the Public Debt being under-paid by G$20,292million.  Does President Granger know that his Minister of Finance under-paid the debt by G$20 billion?  If not, who really is the Finance Minister accountable to?
This act of under-paying on the national debt is a total abandonment of one’s duty as a Minister of Finance. Not paying the debt down as budgeted is a debased financial strategy especially when there is money to fund this promise.
We all know there were enough funds in the parallel Treasury, as established under the PPP, to fund 100% of this shortfall of G$20 billion? But today most of that parallel Treasury (accumulated under the PPP) is still in place and I wonder why? Remember it was Team Granger who promised to follow the law and transfer these funds to the Consolidated Funds? NOT DONE!
The PPP used these funds to circumvent Parliament to fund projects like the Kingston Hotel.  But why is Minister Jordan keeping these funds outside of the Consolidated Funds in violation of the law? But back to these debt payments. Not paying one’s debt as promised is a bad thing since it translates to the future generation being saddled with these debts as a process brought forward from the past.
This means more taxes for the primary and secondary school children of Guyana when they grow up.  Is this the legacy of the Granger administration?  Is this the plan, the older rulers advance into the future the national burden to the children of Guyana?  Is this why President Granger asked the children of Guyana to “co-operate” with him?
It is the children of Guyana who will have to bear this future burden because of this mis-step under the Granger administration.
This is a dangerous development and it takes one back to what happened under the Burnham administration when that government refused to pay the debt leading to the debt burden climbing to 98 cents of every dollar earned by 1990? Are we on the road to re-living the past?  Is this what Ministers Khemraj Ramjattan and Moses Nagamootoo are in agreement with? The local media should demand an explanation from the Minister of Finance as to why he did not liquidate the promised amount of the national debt, when there was enough cash to take care of business.  Was he trying to artificially prop-up the national reserves to fool the people?
Lastly, the 2015 Auditor General Report highlights that Central Government failed to achieve their anticipated levels of capital expenditure activities during 2015 resulting in a shortfall of G$8,452 million. This shortfall was attributed primarily to delays in the implementation of key infrastructure projects.
This unsatisfactory situation resulted in the return of disbursements totalling G$1,094 million to the IDB under the Road Network Upgrade project and the GPL Project.  Appalling performance by Minister David Patterson, who continue to show that he lacks the necessary competence to serve even on the board of a small business.  This does not shock me when I observed his performance as he struggled to compile a basic list of candidates in 2011.
The key point in leadership is having the ability to ask the right questions and getting the right answers and holding your team to milestones.  It is clear that President Granger continues to be out to lunch on the hard National Development issues because he continues to not elicit the kind of performance from his team members that will aid in national economic transformation.  His speech to Parliament was most uninspiring and illustrates he is definitely out to sea. Rather we are seeing a team of committed minimalists in Cabinet who are more interested in the parades, the perks and the pay rather than serving the Guyanese people.
After 25% of the term is over, we are yet to see the national action plan with milestones and deliverables and it is clear that the Guyanese economy will grind to halt as a result of this poor level of leadership at the highest levels.
Sase Singh

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