Political grandstanding on the Budget

DEAR EDITOR,
Guyana is truly blessed to have a man with perhaps the most brilliant brain in financial matters, serving its people as Minister of Finance. Together with former President Bharrat Jagdeo, Dr. Ashni Singh can be proud of his role in helping to transform the economy from bankruptcy in 1992, to the thriving one that most Guyanese take for granted today.
To achieve eight consecutive years of economic growth at a time when economies throughout the region and the world are troubled, requires brilliant planning and the management of a policy framework that is conducive to sustained economy growth.
In Dr. Singh’s own words, “Looking at recent economic developments in the region and around the world, there can be no doubt that real growth of GDP of approximately five percent per annum for the past eight years is an absolutely outstanding achievement…this achievement is by no stretch of the imagination an accidental one.”
In retrospect, the historical evidence of the (lack of) achievements of former PNC Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge from 1985 to 1992, are well documented. Perhaps he may argue that the state of the economy he inherited as Minister of Finance under the PNC Government (increasing from 17 percent of recorded GDP in 1980 to 59 percent in 1985) was so bad that there was very little he could have done to improve it, and perhaps he was right.
For with the exception of a short-lived relief during 1987 and 1988, the deficit jumped back to an estimated 55 percent of GDP in 1989. Regardless, APNU’s Shadow Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge must accept full responsibility for Guyana’s bankruptcy by 1992. In my opinion, he has no credibility to demand sound financial management from this administration, and must refrain from being the bully he has now become.
In a Kaieteur News article dated January 21, Greenidge “firmly stated that he will not accept the proposal by the Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh to now have discussions on the 2014 budget.” This statement could not have been made without the approval of Party Leader, David Granger, and proves definitively that the PNC/APNU’s only real interest is political grandstanding on the Budget.
Considering that the debate on the Budget is likely to commence late in March and there is still sufficient time for meaningful discussions, here is an interesting timeline that debunks all claims made by Greenidge that “the Minister of Finance has failed to honour his commitments in relation to not only discussing the 2014 budget, but also the process for discussions of future budgets.”
On January 13, Finance Minister Ashni Singh sent an email to the opposition inviting them to meet on the 2014 Budget and he specifically requested APNU’s shadow Minister of Finance Carl Greenidge to “suggest a date during the past or coming week” for them to meet. The email was copied to David Granger, Lance Carberry, Khemraj Ramjattan, Dr. Roger Luncheon, and Gail Teixeira. The email contained copies of documents to be discussed. Both Granger and Greenidge refused to respond to the email invitation.
A few months earlier, according to Greenidge, the Administration and opposition had agreed for him to meet with Dr. Singh to discuss a process for discussions on future budgets to avoid the confusion and misrepresentation that surrounded the 2012 and 2013 budgets. Then on September 9, 2013, he sent Dr. Singh “a proposal which was agreed on by APNU’s side to be appropriate.”
“Dr. Singh did not send me a single note with his comments. Instead, he suggested a meeting be held the next day but it was short notice and the members of the coalition were not able to meet with him. We suggested another date for a meeting but nothing was done about it.”
If members of the opposition coalition were too busy or preoccupied to meet with the Finance Minister at his invitation “the next day”, why should he put off doing the nation’s work to meet with them at their convenience? Most people I know, would put off everything else to meet with the Minister on such an important topic, but not Ramjattan and Greenidge, they have no respect for authority and for the Ministers of this Administration. Yet they complain when the Finance Minister is not available to meet with them on their terms.
When they finally met, Greenidge explained “At that meeting he told us that he had little difficulty with the proposals sent to him but his comments by way of refinement were ready and we would receive it within a week, which was supposed to be by November 15, 2013 but we received nothing… I then indicated to him that I was unable to recommend any further discussions with him and that the three leaders of the parties should now decide the way forward. The letter I received from Dr. Singh suggesting that we should have a meeting now, in my view is rather out of place… We are no longer interested in having any discussion with him at this point.”
This unfortunately, is the same attitude of the opposition that justified decisions taken by former President Bharrat Jagdeo without fully consulting the opposition during his administration.
Then a few days ago, on January 17, signaling his intentions to cut the 2014 National Budget, Leader of the Opposition, David Granger claimed that his party was being sidelined and has not been properly consulted on the budget. But by his own admission, “There had been some exchange between the Shadow Minister of Finance, Mr. Carl Greenidge and the Finance Minister, Dr. Singh but those were not consultations.”
Of course this statement by Granger was highly misleading, and caused Dr. Singh on January 20 to label this a “blatant lie and publicity stunt.”
If Granger and Greenidge really have the nation’s best interest at heart, they would find the time to meet with the Minister of Finance to unequivocally find common ground in reaching consensus on the 2014 National Budget. Instead, I am convinced that they are deliberately using the excuse of not meeting with the Minister to prepare the Guyanese people as part of an ill-conceived strategy to justify butchering the budget when it is presented to the National Assembly. If this economic sabotage continues, President Ramotar will be best advised to bite the bullet and call new elections.
Harry Gill