GUYANA has experienced a “massive shortfall” in revenue because of the COVID-19 epidemic; President David Granger said on Sunday however that though the country’s currently accessible finances are low, they are not depleted.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference at State House, he said that the COVID-19 epidemic has increased the need for expenditure to fight the spread of the disease. With no 2020 budget due to passage of the no-confidence motion which placed the government in an interim state, all other government ministries have adjusted their spending, within the law, to meet the arising needs.

“Money is there but in limited amounts and, of course, not for the purposes that we would like them because they have to be deployed to COVID. Naturally, the expenses are high but, unfortunately, the revenue is low. We have not been able to collect as much revenue as we would have collected in normal times because many people are not working, some are working from home; production has declined; trade has declined; the airports have been closed; so there will be a massive shortfall in revenue and, similarly, there will be a massive increase in expenditure,” he stated.

As of June 13, Guyana has recorded 159 cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths. The number of recoveries has increased to 95 and the increase in cases of the virus is beginning to slow. The President said that he is hopeful that a swift conclusion to Guyana’s elections which began on March 2, 2020, will see a new administration being sworn in and will permit the new Parliament to pass the budget the country so greatly needs.

He stated: “In terms of finance, everything we’ve done so far is within the law and when the time comes — we hope the time comes soon — we will be able to return to Parliament…and we can return to normalcy as soon as possible. We [have not yet reached a plateau in terms of COVID cases, but we expect that the enforcement measures by the police and other agencies will get us there very soon and we’ll be able to open up the economy maybe as early as July 1 or very soon, so that revenues can start to flow back.”

Though the government has already received almost USD $95M in revenue from the oil and gas sector now within the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), it cannot access the said finances except through Parliament. The President dissolved the 11th Parliament and the 10 Regional Democratic Councils on December 30, 2019.

Meanwhile, with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) still to deliberate on how it will treat with the anomaly-riddled results of the March 2, 2020 elections, should it call for fresh elections and additional funds be needed by GECOM, the President said that agreement would be required with the opposition for the expeditious administering of said funds.

“For funds to be provided they will have to be some mechanism for Parliament to be reconvened. Right now, we’re not running on empty, but we’re running on very low funds,” he explained. “I cannot, at this point, say what legal mechanism could be employed to reconvene the 11th Parliament, but the question of the 12th Parliament will depend on the elections results and if you’re speaking about a nullity… we’re moving into uncharted territory.”

The President assured the public that he is interested in a speedy outcome to the elections so that Guyanese can refocus on future development.