More billions, more waste – Kaieteur News

Editorial…

(Kaieteur News) – Perhaps Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira was partly right. The PPP/C government was planning to reconvene parliament, because it had no choice. It had to go back there to still, get the more billions needed.  A government that sucks up money at the rate of a powerful high-speed vacuum. Only a government to whom the disgraceful has no meaning could approach parliament for $55B more, four months after this nation’s biggest budget ever. That has to be some record.

It is part of an old budget con game that the PPP/C government plays on Guyanese, abuses parliament for. The billions are guaranteed, and upcoming debates a waste of time. Even with the slender margin of a one-seat majority, no supplementary funding bill submitted by the government has been defeated in the last five years.  That one-seat majority has expanded to seven-seats, which gives the government an unassailable advantage. Members from the combined opposition can take turns beating the table, heckle as much as they find pleasing and still, they would make little headway. The disastrous Wales Gas-to-Energy will get its $19B cash infusion. The Ministry of Agriculture’s National Drainage and Irrigation Authority will be boosted by another $4.5B. The Ministry of Housing will grab $17.5B, the second biggest chunk of the supplementary $55B “to facilitate an expanded work program.” And, so will the Ministry of Home Affairs with $60M to speed up some of its works.

Were the respective ministers, technical officers, budget officers, and planning officers in Housing and Home Affairs asleep on the job? They had a good part of 2025 and up until late January of this year to review and layout their work programs, and include any additional costs that such would incur. Now, the government embarrasses itself with this early $55B Financial Paper Number One for 2026 (supplementary budget) and it is only early June. Where is the emergency development that makes such a move necessary? The manner in which the Wales Gas-to-Energy has been managed, has unfolded, it does not surprise that it would need to be subsidised by more billions. What is surprising is that $19B is needed in one shot. When the current GY$ to US$ exchange rate is considered, the GY$19B comes very close to the US$97M that the Dispute Arbitration Award Board finalised as the settlement for Lindsayca-CH4.

We can look at this $19B in one of two ways. Accept what the government says on its face (“to facilitate an accelerated work program”), which could be the case, given the delays over soil stability that slowed down the project. Or, billions to refill the GTE budget from which Lindsayca-CH4 was paid its US$97M. A project that began in mystery, continued with a series of dodges and secrets, has now deteriorated to the shabby. Billions rollout from the local Treasury, billions roll in to the GTE. However, the promised half-priced electricity looks more of a question mark with each new development, most of which are hidden from the public. This is another lesson for citizens of how their government squanders the oil money that flows into the country.  There are costly experiments reeking of poor conception, uninspiring implementation, and little in the form of expert oversight. One constant is suspect political involvement in projects of this magnitude, but who then distance from them at the first sign of problems.  Another constant is that more is demanded from this country’s coffers, while ordinary citizens are starving, left to fend for themselves in an environment that never stops squeezing the breath out of them.

From the past five years, and the PPP/C government’s now obvious tendency to splurge in the billions, there is one more constant of which we at this paper are sure. It is now the first half of June only, and already the first supplementary budget is before parliament. There is going to be another two supplementary budgets, at least, between now and year end. What is unknown are the precise times at which the government will put on its best face and return to parliament for more billions. The recent massive floods could be used later as justification for more supplementary money to help cope with the damage inflicted.