-Says critiques reveal weak grasp of fiscal policy, ‘not serious about governance’

Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy, has said that the Opposition’s response to the 2026 National Budget and their attacks continue to expose a troubling lack of seriousness, policy depth and economic literacy.
“The Opposition’s commentary makes it clear that they have not grasped what this budget is designed to do: consolidate growth, protect the vulnerable, expand productive capacity, and responsibly manage a fast-growing economy,” McCoy said in a post on his official Facebook page
According to the Minister, instead of engaging the substance of the fiscal framework – including macroeconomic stability, sectoral investments, social spending, and long-term development planning, Opposition MPs from APNU and the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, which is less than a year old, have resorted to political noise and shallow sound bites.
“Instead of engaging the substance—macroeconomic stability, sectoral investments, social spending, and long-term development planning—they resort to noise, slogans, and shallow sound bites,” McCoy stated.
APNU and WIN have been publicly criticising the $1.558 trillion budget by comparing it to their own manifesto-style promises. However, these same parties were previously called out during the 2025 elections after failing to present any concrete, costed plans when challenged to explain how such commitments would be financed or sustained.
As such, many of the Opposition’s proposed measures would in fact require a significantly larger national budget, deeper borrowing and an even wider fiscal deficit, the very outcomes they now accuse the Government of pursuing.
“A national budget is not a campaign flyer or a protest chant. It is a technical, policy-driven instrument grounded in data, projections and fiscal discipline. Their failure to understand this betrays not just inexperience, but an absence of seriousness about governance,” McCoy said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira also responded to claims by new WIN parliamentarian Gobin Harbajan, that Opposition MPs were given insufficient time to prepare for the debates.

“How can this be fair to all opposition MPs? We were only given six days to make preparations and debate for the largest budget ever in Guyana,” Harbajan said.

Teixeira dismissed the criticism during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle while indicating that “they have ample time to prepare” while noting that this has been the practice for many parliaments that have come before this thirteenth parliament.
This is why, Minister McCoy stressed that Guyana’s current economic trajectory demands informed critique and mature political engagement, not what he described as political theatrics.
“Guyana cannot afford leaders who confuse performance with theatrics. The 2026 Budget demands informed critique and mature debate—not clueless posturing from a team still struggling to understand the basics of public finance,” McCoy said.