Ram slams President, Finance Minister over delay in release of census data

Dec 29, 2025 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Intolerable and inexcusable. Those two words best describe the years-long delay in the publication of the 2022 national census data which remains pending without a clear timeline for publication- a failure that falls squarely at the feet of President Irfaan Ali and Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.

This is according to chartered accountant and attorney, Christopher Ram. In his most recent column published Sunday by Stabroek News, the lawyer referenced comments reported by the newspaper where the minister said he was “still awaiting a clear update” on the long-delayed 2022 Population and Housing Census, that he was unsure what caused the delay, and that he intended to raise the matter with the chief statistician “very soon.”

Ram pointed out the issue may have been excusable were it routine, and tolerable if the delay was brief. To this end, he noted that as finance minister, Dr. Singh carries the responsibility of presenting annual budgets exceeding one trillion dollars, allocating resources across ministries, departments, agencies, regions, and sectors; a task which demands the most current and reliable demographic and socio-economic data available.

“It cannot responsibly and properly be discharged by guesswork, political preference, or incremental increases carried over from the previous year. A population and housing census is precisely the dataset that anchors such decisions. For the senior minister responsible for finance to accept – assuming his account is accurate – a state of affairs in which that foundational data is unavailable, unexplained, and unmanaged is not merely regrettable. It borders on incredible,” the lawyer argued.

Furthermore, he said the explanation is not merely puzzling in a political sense but difficult to reconcile with the statutory framework governing official statistics in Guyana. Ram pointed out that the Statistics Act does not contemplate an open-ended census process, nor does it permit foundational national data to drift indefinitely without explanation or accountability.

Shifting his attention to the Bureau of Statistics, the Chartered Accountant highlighted that the body is governed by a board chaired by the finance secretary – who operationally reports direct to the minister – with the chief statistician as vice-chair, and comprising senior public officials.

Notably, oversight of the bureau therefore sits squarely within the financial and administrative architecture of the state. “Delays of this magnitude cannot occur unseen, unexplained, or unmanaged at that level. Nor does responsibility end with Dr. Singh,” Ram said.

The Lawyer reasoned that President Ali in an unprecedented, unexplained move which is yet to be clearly understood has not allocated finance to its own minister.

To this end, he contended, “Under our constitutional framework, Finance is retained within the Office of the President, and responsibility for Statistics has been allocated to no other minister. In such circumstances, prolonged non-delivery cannot be treated as an operational mishap. It becomes an executive failure that points directly to Dr. Singh and indirectly to President Ali.”

Further deepening the worry over the census data is the fact that the public has been fed with a mixture of excuses and promises offered by the minister, according to Ram.  The lawyer also pointed out that this is no longer a single lapse, but a pattern, as years have passed and another beckons, with the board of the Bureau of Statistics also close to expiring. To this end, he said, “A governing body chaired by the finance secretary, with the chief statistician as vice-chair, and populated by senior public officials, will have completed its term without delivering the most important statutory function of the decade. Boards are appointed to govern, to supervise, and to ensure delivery. When a board’s term expires without results, responsibility gives way to accountability – not excuses.”

With just a few more days before the year ends, Ram urged that the responsibility for the census cannot be deferred any further but must be owned and acted upon as he underscored the crucial role of the data to the country.

“What makes this failure even more troubling is that the statistics act does not contemplate a single, isolated census. It provides for several distinct censuses and large-scale statistical exercises – including population and housing, labour force, household expenditure and other socio-economic surveys – each separate in scope, but all essential to decision-making, public administration, and management applying evidence-based governance. The act also gives the bureau latitude, with ministerial approval, to undertake additional censuses and surveys as circumstances require. In other words, the population and housing census is not the sole output of the statistical system, but the cornerstone upon which the others rest.”

Planning on social and physical infrastructure, skills requirements and availability, poverty measurement, household consumption analysis and intercensal estimates all depend, directly or indirectly, on the population baseline. As such the failure to publish the 2022 census casts a shadow on the entire system of official statistics and weakens the informational foundation on which policy decisions are made and national finances are allocated, Ram noted.

Regarding the consequences of the prolonged inaction, the lawyer said, “In the political sphere, the absence of inconvenient data may be tolerable, even advantageous. It allows narrative to substitute for evidence, delays scrutiny, and permits claims of progress to go largely untested. In management, however, the same absence is dangerous. Decisions made without reliable baseline data distort priorities, misallocate resources, and entrench inefficiencies.”

Ram said if the 2022 population and housing census is to retain any value, the president and the senior minister responsible for finance must act decisively: appoint a new board without delay, with a clear and public mandate to bring the exercise to publication within a fixed timeframe.

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• Ashni Singh, census, Irfaan Ali, publish, Ram

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