Since Monday, the entire National Assembly has transformed itself into a “Committee of Supply” to conduct the Approval of the Budget Estimates. It’s the most tedious process imaginable since every “line item” in every Budget agency has to be scrutinised and voted on. It’s like watching grass grow as the brain becomes numbed with the tedium of the unending thousands and thousands of items.
You’ve got to give the Opposition credit for sticking it out!! Cause all they can hope for is that the voters will remember at the next elections how much they were fighting to prevent the PPP government from overspending or spending on boondoggles!! But with this in mind your Eyewitness was a tad taken aback when they insisted on making a big fight about the funds for the Office of the Leader of the Opposition (OLoO). This isn’t exactly what they’d want voters to hear about, would they? Now this line item doesn’t include the SALARY of the LoO and his perks. That was increased to over $800,000 back in 2015 when the PNC gave themselves that 50% raise to “discourage temptation to corruption”, according to Harmon. But Jagdeo had committed to passing on his “increase” to charity. No doubt whoever becomes the new LoO will be pocketing $800,000 monthly! To “save him from temptation”!!
Now, the fella creating the ruckus was no other than Harmon’s closest associate and since Harmon’s out of the picture, it can only be he (the toady, not Harmon) was trying to brownnose the incoming LoO! Seems that last year they’d requested $48M for capital expenditures alone!! The mind boggles as to what they wanted to do with their office space!! They received the usual $5M plus $37M for current expenses. This year they came back with some exorbitant figure and got $32M for current expenses and $5M for capital expenses.
Now if you think the PPP was being mean, you just need to look at the numbers for the LoO when Jagdeo filled the office. For the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, the office received $34.5M, $37Mand $35M, respectively!! It didn’t matter whether the PPP jumped up and down, the PNC said that sum was more than enough and they should be thankful!! So the Opposition should be grateful – sauce for the goose being same for the gander! Especially when there is no Opposition Leader in sight to fill the office, isn’t this money just going to pile up?! No secretaries and researchers to be hired! Conservatively, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether that predicament of the PNC will be resolved by the end of the year!!
Even with that intervention of the “elders”!!
…so how to spend?
From the historic $530B budget, the Government’s gonna spend some $217B on capital expenditure – TWICE that of the previous year!! That’s right…the PPP government’s focusing on using the oil money to actually invest in BUILDING the country – especially in infrastructure that’ll last generations!! Unlike the Opposition who’d use the money to spend on current expenses and return us to a “hand to mouth” existence thirty years from now when the oil runs out!!
But unlike what the IMF and other multilateral institutions have been recommending, the government hasn’t cut the current expenditure – which goes mostly to salaries in the top heavy and bloated Public Sector, etc. One study shows that the PNC/APNU had increased the Public Sector with their supporters by 35% in their 5 years!! Yet the PPP increased current expenditure this year by 10% from $275M to $302B – but now below the 66% we’d been averaging for the last decade.
More than double our Caricom neighbours!!
…so enjoy
The government has set the groundwork through scholarships and local content legislation for us to buckle down and get more and more of our oil money through our own efforts.
It’s up to us – handouts will not prepare us for the future! Save make us more dependent!
