A huge budget without good governance results in lots of money being wasted

Nov 30, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Our National Budget continues to grow and with each year the masses embrace great expectations only to be disappointed, as Finance Minister rambles on to the end of his budget speech.
The 2019 Budget is humongous – $300.7 billion! However, the vulnerable citizenry – the youths, the pensioners, the impoverished in need of public assistance, the hordes of dismissed sugar workers – saw no light at the end of that five-hour long speech filled with repetitions, a plethora of dream-selling statements and an overabundance of platitudes.
We hear about huge increases of budgetary allocations in various ministries and government agencies, but the old age pensioners could only be rewarded $1,000 increase as they near the end of their earthly existence! However, they must thank their masters, since in 2018 they were given the princely sum of $500 and now it’s a 100% increase.
The impoverished and the disabled met the same fate. Public assistance was given a paltry increase of $1,000 which will burden the Coalition Government by an additional $800 million. Can you imagine the callous, unconscionable and uncaring nature of this Government?
And yet they have the temerity to brag and boast about ‘Transforming the Economy, Empowering People, Building Sustainable Communities for Good Life’. This is absurdity to the extreme, when we look at the massive squandering, mismanagement and outright thievery of public funds by the various Government agencies.
This government needs to give the ‘significant’ increases as promised and restore the water and electricity to the old age pensioners and those who deserve public assistance should be ‘assisted’ in a more significant manner.
Moreover, the education budgetary allocation has jumped to $52.6 billion, yet this Government is unable to reinstate the cash grant given to students. This is especially worrying for parents, since the rise in cost of living makes it increasingly burdensome to send children to school. Under the previous administration this grant would have been around $40,000 per student by now. Why not ensure that students are in school? The five B’s initiative alone cannot ensure that students are in school to receive the benefits of the $52.6 billion.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), unemployment among youths in Guyana is around 26.33 percent. Yet the programs for youths only target certain areas. The allocation of $1.7 billion will be administrated and disbursed through the Government Ministries such as the Ministry of Social Cohesion and the Ministry of Business, and it is only known too well who will be the beneficiaries to the loans, grants and subsidies.
Furthermore, an allocation of $176 million to the HEYS program is inadequate. Can the Finance Minister say how many of these young ‘entrepreneurs’ trained are actually making a living off it? Are we getting value for money?
Unfortunately the huge 2019 Budget will only provide fodder for greater corruption, mismanagement and thievery, since the Minister of Finance has done nothing to ensure that the financial laws of this Nation are adhered to. Moreover, it is clear from the Auditor General’s Report 2017 that value for money is seriously compromised.
An analysis of the Auditor’s Report 2017 will show that a huge chunk of the budgetary allocations, probably conservatively estimated at 25%, does not benefit the recipients intended.
The Audit Act 2004 Section 24(3) states that, ‘…a public entity is applying its resources and carrying out its activities economically, efficiently, and effectively and with due regard to ensuring effective internal management control’.
Mr Deodat Sharma has bemoaned the fact that there is a lack of internal auditing units at the various budget agencies. This law is seriously breached.
The Finance Minister, Mr Winston Jordan had agreed that even though the Financial Laws of Guyana impose on every budget agency to have strong auditing systems, only a few budget agencies, if any at all, can boast a proper system of internal auditing that meets the test of competence. He admitted that there was an immediate and urgent need to improve transparency and accountability. He said that, ‘a project will be launched to review the needs and capacity of each budget agency or cluster of budget agencies, so as to implement a proper system of internal auditing’. He also acknowledged that the Audit Office needs more human and technological resources, since the lack thereof has greatly hindered the work of this Statutory body, and had promised to rectify this.
It is clear then that the budgetary allocations for the various government agencies are not accurate, since a huge percentage of the monies ‘spent’ were for goods and services never received or provided. Therefore, what is there to stop a repeat of the same in 2019? With proper control measures in place, more monies would have been available for the old age pensioners, the poor and disabled, and the students and youths of this country.
In conclusion, I wish to exhort the Honorable Minister of Finance, Mr Winston Jordan to implement the measures he spoke about, so that we can finally get value for our money. And he needs to seriously review his Budget 2019 to ensure that those who deserve the ‘good life’ are adequately addressed. A huge budget without transparency, accountability and good governance is money wasted.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councilor-Region 6

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