—Minister Jordan warns of far-reaching implications

THE Government needs to get to Parliament soon to set Budget 2020 into motion as failure to do so could pose far-reaching implications. Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, shared his concerns on the matter, on Thursday, as he noted that the Constitution does not cater for flexibility in this regard.

“I would express a bit of a concern that Budget 2020 is in some amount of jeopardy…even if assuming Parliament were to open sometime in late August or thereabout, a budget is due maximum three months thereafter. So, that will take you to November, if you can get a budget presented and passed. [Then], the year is finished and you start back again. A new budget will be 2020-2021 [and it] could have its problems trying to get it within the timeframe within 90 days of the new year after just bringing out a new budget,” Jordan said in an interview with the National Communication Network (NCN).

He added: “The Constitution doesn’t allow for flexibility where that is concerned. So, I think this is an area that we’ll have to think very carefully about pretty soon. Parliament needs to open pretty soon so that the clock on the 2020 Budget could start ticking.”

The country has not had a 2020 budget due to the passage of the December 2018 no-confidence motion and the subsequent elections yet to be concluded.

The Finance Minister had noted in April 2020 that the government will turn its attention to stimulus packages for vulnerable Guyanese affected by COVID-19 after the country moves past the electoral impasse. However, several court battles later and a national recount, the elections are yet to be declared.

With no budget for 2020, the Government has been unable to mitigate the financial effects of COVID-19 to the best of its ability. The Finance Minister reminded that a number of spending in key areas require Parliamentary approval within the context of the budget. The Government has been restricted in a number of areas to only one-twelfth (1/12) of the expenditure because of the emergency funding invoked for COVID-19.

“Almost everything that is being asked for has budget implication. Most of them, if not all of them, are expenditure increasing or revenue reduction and those two things are going in the same direction downwards…we still have to mind the gap – so to speak – we still have the economy to run and COVID-19 or not we still have to run the economy in the context of sound economic management,” Jordan said.

Even as the nation awaits an end to the elections, Minister Jordan is optimistic that the Half Year report will be completed within the timeframe, which is by the end of August annually. He expects that, due to the very little activity, there will be some negative variances with the previous period. Still, the Finance Minister said he will await the final numbers and let them speak for themselves.