The public service is too bloated

Dec 01, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The imposition of VAT on water and electricity is a revenue-generating measure. It is an inefficient way of promoting conservation. The best way to promote conservation of water is to have a sliding-scale tariff. The higher the usage of water, the higher should be the tariff. This is how conservation is pursued.
The government is attempting to disguise a crass and controversial revenue measure as a conservation tax. It is trying to raise more taxes to compensate for that which it has foregone through reduction in the corporate and income tax rates.
Two better approaches could have been pursued. The first should have been to reduce government expenditure and go after tax evasion rather than trying to introduce a new tax.
The government has always claimed that tax evasion is rampant in Guyana. It means that there are a lot of uncollected taxes out there. Instead of introducing measures to encourage greater compliance, the government is introducing severe penalties which will only serve to discourage greater compliance.
The government did not need to introduce VAT on water and electricity. There is enough evasion out there which if plugged, will more than compensate for the revenues which will be gained from taxing water and electricity.
The second approach should have been to reduce government spending. Last year, it was pointed out that there were more contract employees under APNU+AFC than when the PPP/C demitted office.
The government would have by now made adjustments to that, by ensuring that former contract workers are now placed on the fixed establishment as public servants. But it is quite possible that there are more government employees today than there were when the PPP/C demitted office. Yet, the diagnosis of the government is that the public service is still lethargic. This means that the assumed increase in employment has not impacted on efficiency.
The government has been saddled with poor levels of project implementation. Large sums budgeted have not been spent. The government is hoping to improve its implementation ratio by having planning units in every Ministry. It was the one, when in opposition, which shut down the State Planning Secretariat on the grounds that it was illegal, and it could not approve funding for an illegal entity.
It is now recognizing the wisdom in having planning unit, but it is making a mistake in not centralizing this unit under one ministry. It will discover that there are simply not enough trained and experienced planners to be part of planning units in all Ministries. A great many square pegs will end up manning round holes in these planning units.
There are already a number of square pegs in round holes in the government. A running joke within the media is that if you want a job in a certain government department, it pays to have experience in drama.
A young lady was recently held in the United States on suspicion of smuggling narcotics into that country. She was said to be a Deputy Regional Executive Officer. Now why does a small country need a Deputy Regional Executive Officer?
There are many positions within the government which should be outlawed. There is no need for such employees. There is no need for some ministries and departments. There are too many junior ministers. There are too many administrative personnel in Ministries. The public service is bloated. There are too many persons doing the same work across ministries.
All of this is costing money which the government has to raise through increased taxes. No wonder the new taxes on water and electricity have been imposed.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News