AS FINANCE Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, prepares to present Guyana’s budget for

2013 in Parliament today, the question of relevance is whether it would be the same scenario of another plus for the government’s fiscal policy gains and, by comparison, another negative response from the opposition parties?
Widely respected among his CARICOM counterparts and leading officials of Regional and international financial institutions for Guyana‘s recurring fiscal management successes, Dr Singh’s budget presentation today will be his seventh since first doing so back in 2007 following his appointment in September 2006 as Finance Minister.
Functioning in the mould of a respected technocrat rather than a regular politician, the amiable Finance Minister is known for his commitment to engage in consultations with national stakeholders, as private sector representatives have well recognised.
This willingness for consultation also with the opposition on the 2013 budget was made clear, despite the opposition’s “cutting-spree” approach in dealing with the 2012 budget. In addition, that is to the negative posturing of its lead spokesman on Finance, Mr Carl Greenidge, who was last week still offering excuses for his failure to show up for scheduled consultation on preparation of the 2013 budget.
Against the backdrop of disappointing economic performances being the norm for too many CARICOM member states, Guyana, and secondly Belize, were contrasting examples in recording significant gains with employment-generated economic growth.
Just last month, in his examination of the major activities of the Caribbean Development Bank for 2012 and economic prospects for 2013, President of the Region’s premier financial institution, Dr Warren Smith, noted that Guyana and Belize were the Region’s “top growth performers in 2012, supported by strong outturns in agriculture and mining respectively…”
If, for their part, the APNU/AFC opposition alliance remains bent on pursuing a negative course in making a virtue of truculent slashings of budgetary expenditures—irrespective of the consequences for the Guyanese people, their own supporters included—then we should soon know with the coming debate on the 2013 budget.
Following the recent shocking development in parliament of the opposition using its one-seat majority to block legislation designed to better enable the security forces to deal with trafficking in illegal guns and arrest the criminal rampage, the government was to point out how this politically childish approach to the nation’s business contributes to undermining Guyana’s moral authority at international fora, notably at the United Nations.
For now, we anxiously await Finance Minister Singh’s presentation of Budget 2013. According to earlier indicators, further economic growth is expected to be announced. Question is whether a mature patriotic response is too much to hope for from the APNU/AFC alliance?