Supplementary spending money

Aug 10, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The more supplementary money there is, the more there is opportunity for the financial skullduggery at which the PPPC Government is so skilled. What is happening to Guyanese at the hands of an addicted government is unbelievable. This is government leadership driven to madness by its addictions to the people’s oil money, the loan money borrowed in Guyana’s name, and any other money of the people that stick to their hands. Year after year of record breakers for national budgets and the PPPC Government is back to its old tricks. Seven months into 2024 and a Supplementary Budget of GY$40B is put in parliament and will be approved once the formalities are over, given the government’s one-seat majority.

The 2024 budget is a whopper, the biggest in Guyana’s history. At $1.146T it is this country’s first trillion-dollar budget and is 46.6% larger than the $781.9B 2023 budget. In its time, the2023 record national budget of $781.9B was over 41% of the $552.9B national budget record for 2022. The almost $553B 2022 budget was itself 30.1% more than the record 2021 budget of $383.1B. Year after year, and with budget landmarks falling, the PPPC Government’s lust for supplementary budget money continues unabated since 2021. When a national government is piloting record breakers of national budgets annually, and still must approach parliament for supplementary billions several times during most of the years, then something is seriously deficient. What is the meaning of these record budgets, and to a huge extent, when they still must be supported by supplementary funds to the tune of tens of billions?

We think that it is more than slipshod planning that is among the weaknesses. It is more than a lack of vision, an absence of structure. To be frank, we at this paper think that there is so much drunken excitement over all the money that the PPPC Government has in its hands that it throws caution to the winds and just dreams up numbers. In addition to that the government and its people simply tick off boxes, and rush forward with any haphazard budget program that is short on comprehensive thinking, but long on the prospects of financial shenanigans. We believe that these are among the elements that override any principled and careful consideration of budget needs leading to these revealing supplementary budget developments. To repeat our earlier assertion, the more supplementary spending money there is, the more the thievery of political cronies is made possible.

The failed sugar industry is a vacuum for additional billions. Sugar is a sinkhole and blackhole in which an additional $9.5B poured into the sector with little to nothing being reaped from it by the Guyanese people. From the visions of cunning political leaders in the ruling party, sugar is the perfect cover to raid the national treasury. The record is of severe management incompetence which serves as a distraction for the corrupt practices that have taken over the sugar industry during the separate reigns of the PPPC Government. Guysuco functions as the instrument for corrupt exploitation. Old PPPC Government, new PPPC Government, it is the same dirty, costly story for Guyanese. The only beneficiaries are those in the government, or close to it. Those who use supplementary spending as a tool to open Guyana’s wallet and siphon off millions, as much as billions, when the overall damage from widespread corruption is finally calculated.

Electricity is another dog that bites deeply into Guyanese. Secondhand and failing machinery, and questionable procurement standards, have fattened the electricity parasite that feeds off the flesh of Guyanese, with no end in sight. Some of the $40B supplementary funds ($16B) for the national electricity corporation, plus another $1.1B for Linden, is to prop up electricity for the time being, with a nice slice of that sure to be lost to the usual politically-connected hustlers.

Finally, roads have always been a PPPC Government favorite conduit for corruption. This $40B supplementary spending is likely to be no exception. Road construction and rehabilitation will gobble up $904M, with government opportunists celebrating. When will supplementary government spending cease to be a source of corruption is the question. Don’t look to this government for an honest answer.

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Supplementary spending money

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Supplementary spending money

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