[www.inewsguyana.com] – Following the presentation of the country’s whopping $220B budget, Ram & McRae has concluded that “it is strong on subsidies but weak on ideas and job – creation.”
The Company released a survey it conducted, which noted that the Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh spent “considerable time justifying increasing resources to keeping sugar workers on GuySuCo’s payroll rather than produce cane and sugar.”
GuySuCo was allocated $6B in this year’s budget. The survey also pointed out that Central Government now seems “willing to assume responsibility for garbage collection rather than to concede the right of citizens to local government elections. Citizens of Georgetown must pay the City Council rates & taxes to pay salaries to persons no longer required to carry out their basic functions, and pay taxes to Central Government to collect garbage.”
The Company also noted that the Budget is not complete or compliant with the Constitution.
“The diversion of monies from the Consolidated Fund to myriad slush funds, including to NICIL of which the Minister of Finance is Chairman and the abuse of dormant accounts has been refined into an art form, a violation of the Constitution. Thumbing its collective nose at the country, the Government has withdrawn the constitutional right of public servants to negotiations through their recognised unions and put in place a bloated army of contract workers whose pay bill jumped by 55% in the two years from 2012 to 2014.”
According to Ram & McRae, new data shows that each year more than 13,000 Guyanese prefer to seek a better life elsewhere.
“With new data, most likely from the incomplete 2012 census, the estimate of the total population for the last five years was revised downwards, with a cumulative drop of 47,400 or 6.3% at the end of 2012.”
The survey further noted, “As a percentage of the National Budget, both education and health continue to decline. Both the Infant and Under 5 mortality rates declined from 5 years ago while 7.6% of the population is now considered overweight.”
To see the full Ram & McRae survey, click on: http://ramandmcrae.com/Budget_
