Budget consultations

Jan 19, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – The Opposition laments that there has been no consultation from the PPP Government on the 2026 national budget.  When has the government done so?  Surely, the opposition, be it Mr. Aubrey Norton or Mr. Azruddin Mohamed, couldn’t be so optimistic that they harbor such expectations.  The sound coming out of the ground is not reassuring on the budget.

It is almost mid-January.  If the Opposition wasn’t consulted earlier, then the odds of that happening grow paler by the day.  If there is consultation, very remote, it would be more cursory than possessing any quality.  Pres. Ali has compiled a damning record as a leader who says one thing and lives the opposite.  He speaks of being inclusive.  Checking his record would confirm that his definition of inclusive does not extend beyond PPP Govt. insiders and its networks of cabals.  The private sector is sure to have had so many inputs that it could claim ownership of the national budget.  Ergo, a beneficiary of reciprocal consultations between government and this most dependable, trusted, sector.

Where and how does the Opposition fit?  What could it offer in any budget consultation that finds favor with the government?  I do this with an open mind, willing to be corrected.  Like past budgets, the public works infrastructure slice of the national budget shouldn’t reflect too much of a difference in the fraction allocated.  When so much is earmarked for infrastructure, poor Guyanese can bet the dollar that they don’t have that whatever they get from this year’s budget will fall far short of their calculations.

Can Guyanese anticipate another whopper of a budget, a big, blown-up record?  I am; notwithstanding the threat of lower oil prices, fueled by developments in Venezuela.  I foresee that the big suppliers rushing to get ahead with their own production (and profit collection), before US-engineered Venezuelan oil hits the markets.  This should be a concern for Guyana, accommodated for in the 2026 budget.  Would it?  I doubt it.  It certainly doesn’t make any sense for new taxes at this time for a couple of reasons.  The private sector will resist, be upset.  The mass of Guyana’s poor need money from the government, doesn’t have a thin dime to give it.

From a spending perspective, and taking a broad brush, the Georgetown modernisation vision calls for plenty.  The delayed cash grant will require about $70 billion, give or take.  The AI hub will not be cheap.  Comprehensive poverty reduction push will gobble up tens of billion.  The slush fund labeled ‘contingency’ that goes to the Office of the President will get an increase to cope with price pressures, so it should be in the double digits this year, without a penny accounted for, scrutinised and reported.  More will be for farmers, but no lowering of prices of field products.  A nice rip-off, that one.  Billions, billions, billions.  Nothing yet about education, health, or national security.  On the latter, the Opposition is usually a quick and easy call away for consultations and holding one head, when menacing clouds gather from the Venezuelan side of the horizon.  National sovereignty and national defense, no hesitation; national budget consultations, get out of here.  Get real.

It is par for the course.  Government leaders talk one way, then promptly bark up a completely different tree.  What else is new?  Guyanese, including the opposition, have to be the biggest dunces around to believe that consultation, openness, and straightforwardness will grace this

year’s national financial plan.  When has that been under a PPP Govt?  Why should it listen to others, beside the friendly private sector, and interfere with the flow of its program?  Guyanese do not have to be skeptics or cynics, but national oil budgets have come to represent the expression and publication of corruption in very many of those billions allocated to this ministry and that agency.  Naturally, it is not called corruption.  How about national development priorities?  What a budget for the people!  Of course, it is the 1% people, who else?  Pensioners are expecting a nice boost, with someone tabling a jump to $82,000 monthly.  Say what?  When?  Where?  Can’t be here.  If after several budgets and trillions reported, and all Guyanese elderly could have collected was $5,000 one year, $4,000 another, and counting, I hear a move to $50k monthly and not a penny more.  Deal with it.  Ditto parents with children, who are waiting for their January (or Feb) surprise.  May it not be a shock.

In such contexts, consultations with the Opposition will spoil the govt’s fun.  Govt is corrupt, but never, ever that stupid.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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