MINISTER of Finance, Winston Jordan has refuted statements in Tuesday’s edition of the Kaieteur News which suggests that the 2019 National Budget will push the treasury overdraft to $210B.

Minister Jordan said the statement, attributed to former Auditor General, Anand Goolsarran, is misleading and devoid of facts. According to the finance minister, the Bank of Guyana Governor, Dr. Gobind Ganga, when contacted yesterday, confirmed that the overdraft of the consolidated fund account as of December 7, 2018, stood at $62,156,904,935, a far cry from Goolsarran’s $210B.

The minister noted further, “he [Bank of Guyana’s Governor] sent me another message this morning, as of yesterday, December 10, the overdraft at Bank of Guyana was $60,258,036,100. Now, I don’t know where Goolsarran got his figures from and what interpretation of our bank accounts are being used.”

To move from $60B to $210B by 2019, Minister Jordan said, is not just a stretch but “a mile.” “As you can see within a short space of time from the 7th to the 10th [of December] the overdraft had gone down by two plus Billion dollars … It tells you that the overdraft is moving every day. It depends on what you put into the account and what you take out of the account,” he noted.

Minister Jordan said he is unaware of what period the former auditor general is referring to in the article and how he arrived at the outrageous figure. The finance minister reminded that the overdraft is constantly moving, hence the figures will continue to vary. (DPI)