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Budget must focus on national development not elections—WPA
Kaieteur News-The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has raised concerns about the 2025 Budget saying that even though it is an election year, the estimates should be focused on national development instead of being partisan-driven.
The concerns were raised on Monday during the party’s weekly press conference. Co leader of the party, Dr. David Hinds, said the party would not be surprised if the priorities of the 2025 Budget “are in line with the PPP’s intention to remain in government at all costs.”
In fact, Dr. Hinds expressed the party’s fear that taking into consideration the focus of previous budgets, the government will continue to view the country’s budget as an extension of the People’s Progressive Party’s manifesto. “While WPA fully understands the temptation to use the national budget as an electioneering tool, we warn that any budget which is driven solely or largely by partisan considerations cannot be considered “national” in nature,” Dr. Hinds stressed.
Co Leader of the Working People’s Alliance Dr David Hinds.
The WPA is of the opinion that one of the “impediments to socio-economic development since the coming of oil has been the tendency of the government to treat the country’s resources as its personal property and the management of those resources as the purview of the government and the government alone.”
Dr. Hinds told reporters that even though Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has said that consultations on the budget were held to have the input of communities, the WPA feels that these were not broad-based enough and they have not seen any announcements for the said consultations. To this end, Dr. Hinds questioned, “When were these consultations held and with which communities? Were these consultations publicly announced? Which government agency or agencies facilitated these consultations? Were the parliamentary opposition parties consulted? Were civil society organisations, in particular trade unions consulted?”
He went on to explain that, “Budgets by their nature are meant to incorporate the country’s needs and priorities and reflect its broad economic philosophy and vision. Given the plural nature of our society and the fact that the government enjoys a razor-thin majority, it becomes even more imperative that this approach be followed. Failure to do so, as we suspect is the case with this budget, renders the document a “PPP budget for the PPP.” “Therefore, a party budget would reflect the political biases of the administration and the economic philosophy in which countries like Guyana run counter to those of other segments of the society,” Hinds noted.
Dr. Hinds made it clear that though the party is not looking to prematurely judge a budget that they have neither read nor studied, there are areas they intend to pay close attention to. Noting that the government has placed great emphasis on infrastructural spending, Hinds said while the WPA welcomes the attention in these areas they are of the opinion that the government has overdone it.
“There needs to be a more balanced spending approach which reflects multiple priorities and an integrated outlook for the economy. Towards this end, the WPA hopes the government reduces the overemphasis on infrastructure and spread the spending allocations more equally across the critical areas of the economy,” Dr. Hinds said. The Ministry of Finance has announced that the national budget for the year 2025 will be read on Friday January 14th, 2025 and debates will follow soon after to have allocations approved.
(Budget must focus on national development not elections—WPA)
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