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Members of the New
National Party and Her Majesty’s Loyal
Opposition were shocked to hear the
remarks made by new Minister of Finance,
the Honourable Nazim Burke, saying “It’s
an absolute mess!” referring to the
Government’s finances, claiming that the
Government may not be able to honour
salary commitments to Government
Employees, while at the same time saying
he did not want to scare people.
The Opposition is very
concerned that while the Minister made
this apparent disclosure, the
Government, not yet two months in
office, has already contradicted itself
by its own spending patterns.
Ministers are already
traveling extensively and regularly a
practice they criticized. In addition
new vehicles are being purchased for
Ministers and other officials while new
furniture is being purchased for many
offices; free schoolbooks are being
promised to private school students, but
most surprisingly new furniture has been
ordered for the Prime Minister’s
Residence, even though the furniture
already in it was only purchased about
three months ago.
This unnecessary expense
is by far the most excessive, because it
has absolutely no public benefit at all.
How many people struggling with the cost
of living could have benefitted from the
thousands of dollars spend on this
excess?
Further to all of this,
the new top heavy government includes
sixteen Ministers as opposed to an NNP
administration of eleven. There is also
the added irony that the NDC was also
very critical of the NNP for increasing
the Cabinet by one person to add a Youth
Minister: Now the NDC have two. The NDC
Government has appointed a large number
of Advisors to compliment the already
expanded team of Ministers. Already
concerns have been raised about the
professionalism of some Advisors and
workers having very little to do on a
daily basis. In addition, the
government will now have to rent
additional office space to house the
additional workers now being hired..
When these expenditures
are viewed in light of the Finance
Minister’s comments, the Opposition
would like to know what role the Waste
Reduction Unit, planned for the Ministry
of Finance, will be doing about these
early excesses.
It must also be noted
that for the last 13 years, the
Government of Grenada has always been
able to meet its salary commitments,
even after Hurricane Ivan when the
Government of Grenada literally had no
revenues coming in at all. It is the
Oppositions proven experience that
running the country’s finances is a
totally manageable task if those in
authority have strong enough financial
management skills to fit the
responsibility entrusted to them.
The Opposition is warning
the public that the inflammatory
statements made by the Minister of
Finance are a ploy set to deceive the
public. Spending habits in the first
month in Office, clearly indicate that
the Government will soon need to
introduce income or other taxes to
support their lofty lifestyles, while
also preparing to reduce the public
expectations on promises made during the
campaign.
The public finances were
no secret to the opposition. Their
members sat on the finance committee and
requested all the information needed.
The former Prime Minister always warned
that certain requests made by the union
and the opposition were not possible
based on the country’s financial
situation, but the opposition
consistently urged the government to
spend, spend, spend.
If Minister Burke’s
concerns are genuine, Her Majesty’s
Opposition would like to suggest that
prematurely removing the NRL from the
books is not a wise choice if choosing
between paying salaries and removing a
tax four months earlier than scheduled.
In addition, the Opposition would like
to suggest that maintaining some of the
NNP practices, such as the “Essential
only Travel” for all Government Staff,
including Ministers, insisting that
Ministers use their own vehicles, except
in special cases, using the office
furniture and equipment that is
available unless it is impedes
performance or is donated, and sometimes
staff even signed an inventory sheet for
parker pens.
The Opposition would also
like recommend that immediately halting
all excessive spending; such as the
vehicle and furniture purchases, top
heavy government appointments and more
be halted immediately – particularly
since these already, in the first month
in office, exceed the spending the
Congress called ‘Corruption’ while in
Opposition.
NNP
Perspective week ending September 5th, 2008 |
