Ministers and the budget debates

Jan 30, 2025 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News-The current debate of the budget in the National Assembly is again very disappointing both from the standpoint of the overall contributions by most of Members of Parliament (MPs) and the lack of quality by some ministers of government.

One would have thought, that the current crop of ministers would use the time allotted to them to outline the vision of their ministries and explain to the Guyanese people what projects the hundreds of billions would be spent on. Instead, Guyanese who care to tune in have been subjected to a broken record of who rigged elections, interspersed with some poor grammar and pronunciation of words and the general lack of decorum.

We believe that the budget process-including the debates goes to the heart of democratic practice and good governance in a country and consequently, citizens ought to be aware of what is involved so that they may make informed interventions to their representatives. A crucial part of this is for the ministers to explain what is in it for them, instead, what we have been witnessing is rum-shop belligerencies. Their contributions are like an extended episode of the Bharrat Jagdeo’s tiresome Thursday Press Conferences, which focus on cussing out opponents and who did what and who did not do what. We state here again this is not helpful in finding solutions to the crisis in education, healthcare, security and the mismanagement of the oil sector.

With such poor quality, we are surprised that the budget debates or what passed for those, would take up so much time- one week to be exact. And we must still brace ourselves for another week of scrutiny of the estimates. Guyanese must be reminded of the enormous sums being spent to feed the MPs and the staff of the National Assembly as well as provide accommodation for those living out of town.

Such low quality of debates should not last so long. What is taking place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre is barbarism. As far as we are concerned, given the ugliness of last year’s debates not even a pretense at corrective efforts for higher standards is being attempted by our lawmakers, many of whom now stand as confirmed lawbreakers.

Newspapers have generally struggled to make sense of what is being delivered by our MPs. Even the government-controlled DPI that ought to have had a field day with propaganda materials have been struggling. These are some of the headlines the DPI came up with after Tuesday’s debates: ‘Budget 2025 empowers farmers, workers and communities – MP Coonjah’; Budget 2025 focused on equitable development, improving livelihoods – MP Smith’

‘Region Three is the fastest growing region in Guyana’ – Bharrat

‘Budget 2025 is forward-thinking, provides a strategic direction for Guyana – Min Mustapha’; ‘Budget 2025 gives every family with two children, $1.8M of tax free income annually – Finance Minister’; ‘Min. Manickchand rebukes opposition for past failures in education sector’; ‘No lip service, we are a working gov’t’ – Min Sukhai defends gov’t track record on Amerindian development; ‘Opposition’s critique of Budget 2025 misguided, unsubstantiated – Min. Ramson’

These headlines represent stories from the contributions of government MPs- some of them ministers. We discern no substance and no attempt to analyse how the budget will impact the lives of citizens. One may also ask what about the opposition MPs, they too have not been stellar. They cannot be spared here, though there is more than enough madness and blame to coat each and every member of the House several fold. The opposition cannot forget (we do not allow it to) that some 217,000 Guyanese citizens voted for it. Its members must remember that each has, in letter and spirit, a constitutional, political, and personal obligation to step forward and deliver on every occasion; the ingredients of good governance mandate that it does so, which it is yet to do.

The opposition has a role, the leading one, to apply unrelenting pressure to bring exposure to the government of the day, through the shortcomings and mysteries of the national budget. They have however, been consistent during the debates in trying to hold the government accountable for the promises it made to the country when they were campaigning back in 2020. And while we also agree that the opposition must provide solutions to problems they highlight and their own vision as to how to move the country forward, their role as was articulated by former minister, Raphael Trotman years ago to oppose, expose and depose cannot be overlooked.

(Ministers and the budget debates)

budget, debate, Editorial, Members of Parliament, National Assembly

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Ministers and the budget debates

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