Successive governments have failed to recognize the weaknesses in public organisations

Feb 15, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

I am amused that some organizations loyally tucked their tails between their legs and trotted out and exclaimed what a wonderful budget the 2021 one is. The brand new old minister of finance once again exclaimed it is the largest budget ever. His predecessor did the same on several occasions. It’s embarrassing that these guys lack the dignity and eloquence of public officials. The budgets will appear larger and larger each year whether or not there is a real increase simply because of inflation.

The 2021 budget is a crude statement of income and expenditure of public organizations salaries and expenses, Health, Education and Infrastructure. Nothing else. The government institutions lacks the ability and capacity to put forward a budget that addresses the concerns of the average Guyanese. It simply doesn’t have the qualified and skilled persons to do so. The Ministry of Finance State Planning Department has for the last 30 years been monitoring the spending of state agencies. That is all it does. The Ministry of Finance Budget Office is more an extension of the State Planning Department which goes through the same routine every year and count the numbers. There is no analysis because those minds simply do not exist in those organizations. The Statistics Bureau is another department under the Ministry of Finance that goes through the mindless exercise of counting and presenting the economic statistics. These are all mindless exercises that have not changed for decades. The Statistics Bureau lacks the analytical capacity to interpret the numbers. The surveys data from that entity is not trusted. The only organization with the analytical, technical and administrative capacity that saves the government is the Bank of Guyana.

These organizations are like this because successive government administrations have failed to address the weaknesses in these organizations. They allowed the organizations to continue with poor leadership that resulted in this dysfunctional state. The two recent ministers of finance are responsible for this state of affairs. Hopefully the new President sees it fit to correct this. However, it cannot be corrected by inserting friends and family into the organizations. Appoint talented persons with proven ability.

Sincerely,

Harrish Singh

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