Finance Minister still open to consultations on Budget 2018

Jul 28, 2017 News

In spite of the past behaviour of the political opposition, Finance Minister Winston Jordan says that he remains open to consultations on budget 2018 with the political opposition.

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan

The economist recently stated that the government intends to consult widely on the budget.
But when it comes to the opposition, Jordan said, “If they turn up, good enough. They will have an audience with us and they can share what are their concerns, hopes and aspirations with us. If they don’t turn up, the budget will still come out on time…”
The Finance Minister said that he will make allowance for any kind of submission, be it oral, written or otherwise.
Minister Jordan said, “Since 2015, I have said that my door is open and you can request consultations. You don’t have to wait until a new budget cycle to consult.”
He also bemoaned the fact that the political opposition is constantly making the excuse that it does not get access to certain documents. In this regard, Jordan said, “A responsible opposition is bigger than that…”
Since last year, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) made it clear that it was not interested in budget talks with the Government given that its initial requests for “pertinent” information was not honoured by the Finance Minister. This posture was maintained by the PPP as it relates to the 2017 budget.
Specifically making this statement was PPP Executive Member, Irfaan Ali.
In an interview with this newspaper, Ali pointed out that on several occasions, the People’s Progressive Party made requests to the office of the Finance Minister for significant pieces of Government documents so as to inform their talks.
To date, he said that these documents are yet to be submitted.
He said, “Since 2015, we wrote to the Finance Minister asking him for certain documents regarding the Public Sector Investment Programme. We also presented nine recommendations to help the farmers boost the industry and safeguard their livelihood. To date, we have heard nothing in relation to these recommendations from the Government.”
The politician added, “We even called on the government to implement all the projects we negotiated with the Indian Government in the US$50 million line of credit inclusive of the IT Centre of Excellence negotiated by the (former) PPP/C Government.
“The Government must realise by now that they also blundered badly on the Amaila Falls Hydro project. We are convinced that they will have to implement this project if we want to expand our economy.”
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee reminded that the PPP also pushed during the 2015 consultation process, for Government to aggressively back on stream, the Low Carbon Development Strategy and implement the projects and programmes conceptualised under this programme.
Ali who shadows the finance sector said that he even lobbied the government to ensure that the Amerindian livelihood programme be reinstated immediately as well as the reinstatement of the almost 2000 Amerindian youths fired by the coalition Government.
He added, “The hinterland airstrips that were cut out by this government must be completed and implemented immediately.”
The former minister said that “confidence cannot be restored with the continuous ethnic purge that is taking place in the Public Service. The loss of professional services and wanton firing of young people and experienced public officials based on political affiliation and ethnicity must be addressed as well.”
Ali surmised that the Finance Minister has refused to provide pertinent information to the PPP to inform their consultations and has also rejected its recommendations to improve the lives of the people.
He said, “So if we don’t have these documents and they are not using our ideas then what is the point of showing up for consultations? There is no point. Our requests have not been honoured.
“Instead, it has been treated with disrespect and until this is improved we would not be interested in any budget talks with this government. Their intentions are clearly insincere.”
The Opposition’s refusal to meet for budget talks is one that Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, seems accustomed to by now. Jordan recalled that the Opposition was a no show for not only 2017 budget talks but also for 2016.
The Finance Minister said, “…And let me just set the record straight, some of the documents they were asking for were already available and made public so there was no need to be requesting them from me.
“On the other hand, there were other documents such as an IMF document that they asked me for which was not available at the time… I don’t have time to be dealing with excuses.”
The Finance Minister insisted that the government remains open to engaging the Opposition in discussions.
He reiterated that his door “remains open for positive engagements with the PPP” that will take the Government and the country forward.
In the meantime, consultations with other stakeholders are continuing as scheduled by the Ministry of Finance.
Jordan also stated that the manner in which the national budget is prepared, rolled out and accounted for, will be characterised by stricter measures to ensure a level of transparency that has not been seen in over 20 years.
The 2018 budget is slated to be presented to the National Assembly in November.