SUBMITTED
When presenting the new policy plans and the national budget, everyone expects an improvement compared to the plans presented last year. Unfortunately, De Palu is noticing more and more contradictions in what is stated in the annual speech and what the government is doing. Even the budgeted figures appear to be full of contradictions. The annual speech with fake measures and the accompanying budgets full of fictitious figures seem to be increasingly used to fool everyone.
Beautiful words were once again spoken during the past annual speech for 2027 delivered by President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons. In this way, monetary stability would have been achieved. What brought about this coincidental stability is not explained.
“The people are knowingly being fooled!”
Or that society must be prepared for major offshore oil development. According to the annual speech, the government will take the lead in this and involve as many organizations and individuals and political parties as possible. How the government will proceed in this regard is lacking, as are the concrete steps with which the entire society will be prepared.
There are no concrete steps
According to the annual speech, we will not only cut down trees, but also make furniture and high-quality wood products locally. Where are the first steps towards this?
Tourism and agricultural production will be addressed as a priority. Where are the concrete steps to organize tourist resort owners and farmers, the first step towards developing these sectors?
Diplomatic relations would be to the advantage of the Surinamese producers, but no producer is represented in the Surinamese delegations when talking to other countries.
Unclear budget
While the president says that the budget has been more balanced, she presents a new, dirty budget. And because the figures of what has been achieved in previous years are lacking, the president’s claim unfortunately cannot be verified. So she can claim anything. In this sense, President Geerlings-Simons has also so far failed to provide accountability to the National Assembly (DNA).
What did the government spend the money of the state of Suriname on in the previous service years 2025 and 2026? Nobody knows exactly. However, totals of realizations are presented in the documents provided.
Apparently there are spending figures somewhere. But why is there no accountability in DNA if involving political parties in parliament is one of the first steps towards the arrival of the big oil dollars?
Different GDP figures
And if there are figures, it is striking that the government presents different figures about what we all produce in Suriname, the gross domestic product (GDP). For example, in the Financial Report, the GDP for 2025 would amount to SRD 176 billion.
The forecast for 2026 is then SRD 230 billion, which amounts to 30 percent economic growth. While the president speaks in her annual speech about only 3.9 percent economic growth for the year 2026.
But why does the government do that? Other figures such as the budget deficit and total national debt are compared to GDP. A larger GDP therefore means relatively smaller budget deficit and national debt, at least expressed in percentages. For example, according to President Geerlings-Simons, the budget deficit amounts to 4 percent of GDP.
Nice statistics
According to the national debt plan, ‘the debt-GDP ratio’ based on the 2024 GDP figure of the General Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is 119.6 percent, while the debt-GDP ratio based on the estimated GDP figure for 2026 of the Stichting Planningbureau Suriname (not of the ABS) is 69.5 percent.
How credible is this taking two GDP figures from two different institutions. Is the government playing with the GDP figure to make these statistics look better? At the same time, the tables in the Financial Report indicate that the national debt has increased in absolute terms by just under one billion US dollars between 2024 and 2026.
Worrying image
In addition, when calculating the budget deficit, more than SRD 6 billion in loans were recorded as income, so the deficit in reality is almost double. The people are knowingly being fooled!
Just as the Constitution is consciously violated and no accountability is given for the government’s expenditure. De Palu thus notes a continuation of deteriorating political leadership, an annual speech full of fake measures, a budget full of fictitious figures and therefore a worrying picture for 2027 and beyond.
Progressive Workers and Farmers Union (Palu)
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