Skip to main content

Budget in 5 mins.



This week was Budget week with the Minister of Finance presenting his Government's fiscal policy for the coming financial year. It is something I guess all countries do, how they present their budgets, I am sure, varies from country to country. We have adopted the old established boring as hell, convoluted, to be understood only by technocrats, Ernst and Young and PWC.  99% of the speech not to be taken on and 1% of it taking up all the news and discussion. Our Minister went on for 3 painful hours and at the end, the only takehome was that he raised the price of super gasoline by $1.00. Ouch! Three hours of Colm?

So, I figured I would make my comments in less than five minutes. You can time it, it will be exact.


  • Change the format of the Budget speech making it make sense to all.
  • Account for last years spending.
  • Issue a one-pager of the vital statistics - monies in/monies out/ Ministries budget and Ministries spend for the previous fiscal year/deficit/positive cash flow/ % of performance.
  • Establish new Government policy with the major changes in how we intend to conduct business with Government institutions.
  • The Single Electronic Window (SEW) will be adopted for ALL public office transactions. No more going to any office, everything is now online, including payment for services.
  • Major work will be done to alleviate the horrendous traffic jams. The traveling public will finally have an efficient, on time Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system where the transit time from Arima to PoS, Chaguanas to PoS and Diego Martin to PoS will be within 30 mins. The service will be operated by private companies regulated by the PTSC, who will act as the Regulator.
  • ALL public vehicles, including PM1, will be 'green' utilizing clean fuel or electric motors.
  • The two new ferries will be operated using LNG.
  • All Ministries are mandated to reduce their expenditure by 20% which will account for savings of $10 billion. This will be done by creating the required efficiencies and not necessarily a reduction of services. With the SEW, as above, this alone will help achieve the reduction required.
  • All approvals from whichever Ministry will be dealt with in a stated time period. 
  • All local services will be accessed and managed through online services. Garbage, bush truck, WASA, T&TEC, road repairs etc. 
  • Request for tenders will be on every public institution's website. All results of all tenders will be accessed through the website and the award of the tender, including the costs.
  • The completion or non-completion of all public works will be made public.
  • The proposed fiscal package will be made public the following day and will be in simple language so all can understand.  
  • The State Company owned sector will be systematically dismantled and privatized. There is no plausible reason for the State to own and operate a commercial bank, airline, quarry, refinery, asphalt refining, port, postal services, airport, carparks, telephone company, industrial parks, etc. The public will be able to invest in all of the entities to be divested through share ownership.
I guess it is easier to present a complicated confusing Budget, as it is then easier to refute any disagreement. Hiding facts and figures in a 3 hr presentation, where the citizen has to either just take the fact that you raised fuel by a dollar and not even question the rest of the expenditure, taxation and the deficit. That is playing smart with foolishness. You are taking people for fools. The Minister was able to 'confuffel' the majority of people by the '$1.00' fuel price increase and the Petrotrin issue. Nothing about the $25 billion he borrowed from all and sundry. Nothing about the expenditure of the various Ministries in the previous year, who was efficient and who was not, absolutely nothing about the purchase of $1 billion in ferries that was not budgeted for in the last fiscal, and no one questions?

It could take maybe more than 5 minutes, just maybe!

When I look at other countries I realize that we are not alone in what I call 'stupid government'. It is endemic! The world seems to have lost its moorings. A Supreme Court Judge is about to be appointed yet he cannot control his feelings nor hide his bias. I guess I should not be worried because I will not be appearing before him, ever. The whole charade of Brexit is happening in March of next year, the Chinese are colonizing Africa, Australia changes it's government every couple of months, Aung San Suu Kyi has been proven to be a fraud, Kim Jong Un is a happy man, the Venezuelan Bolivar is worthless - a dozen eggs is worth a months salary,  and we are all tied up with a $1.00 increase in the price of fuel.

The Rock lives to see another day!

Good night and good luck!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'aghhhhhhhh'

This week has me feeling so down about the rock and what really is our future. I have always considered myself to be Mr. Optimistic. Things would be bad, sometimes downright terrible with little or no hope and I would be there battling it out. The hard part is our present and future position is all man made [excuse the gender] and it seems that no matter what we do, how we vote, who we put our trust in, it somehow ends up bad. In 1956, the hope was there, a mass appeal, in 1986 it returned and was destroyed by 1990, in 2010 432,026 electors voted for the Peoples Partnership, in excess of 60% of the population. By 2015 a lot of the love disappeared and we found ourselves in a position of no-where once again. I use these years because the popular vote was there, the majority voted overwhelmingly for the winning party. Even though the winner in 1956 did not win by any semblance of a majority, over 80% of the electorate cast their vote. It is interesting to note that in 1956 the PPPG...
1 comment
Read more

the Isle of Spice

We ran away, again, to the Spice Island, for a couple days. Work and play. Our first day there was the day of rain. I have never witnessed steady rain, a bucket a drop, like what we experienced on Wednesday. It started just after 7.00am and continued down to 5.00pm. Of course, the drainage system was put under severe stress and there was substantial flooding in many low lying areas, in addition to landslips on the hills. The videos of a guy on a board surfing on the street was real as was the guy attempting to tie his car in order to prevent it from being washed away. What was very noticeable was the fact that people who had to report for duty did in fact report. We stay at a small hotel and the staff were all present and accounted for. Speaking with other travelers the situation was the same throughout. This morning on leaving the hotel again everyone reporting for duty. Speaking with the GM she said that she had to pick up a couple people who were marooned in their homes, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ADD

A great thing happened today. I washed my car and it did not rain. OK, so other absolutely great things made history today, I am sure something was discovered that will change mankind, decisions by world leaders for world peace. None of that is of interest to me because the simple task of washing my car was what was of great import and I marvelled at the sun and dry weather. It is the little things in ones life that give the greatest joy. Tomorrow should be the same with a prediction of only 20% precipitation. Two days with a clean car is good. I am one of those who curse WASA who has leaks on the main roads with spray flying all around and dirtying up my clean car. WASA should have zero leaks, that should be WASA's goal, I don't think that they are interested in any of this as the leaks continue and the complaints from the citizens continue. I remember in the Manifesto of the ruling party a commitment was made to increase the truck delivery of truck borne water. Go figure! ...
Post a Comment
Read more