Senior Reporter
More than $1 billion allocated for capital works in the 2026 budget has not been spent.
As the presentation of the 2027 Budget looms on Monday, stakeholders are calling for speedier implementation of projects.
For every $10 Government originally set aside for development projects in the last budget, about $6.89 was recorded as spent.
The figures cover the same fiscal year. The Government’s Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) 2026 shows that $5.6662 billion was approved for the 2025 PSIP. The same document put provisional expenditure for fiscal 2025 at $3.9065 billion.
The difference is $1.7597 billion. It is not evidence that $1.76 billion was wasted, lost or missing. It is the difference between the original allocation and the provisional expenditure recorded for the same fiscal year.
The provisional figure included actual spending from October 2024 to August 2025 and estimated spending for September 2025. The document shows it is subject to revision once final expenditure data is verified.
FY2025 ORIGINAL ALLOCATION FY2025 PROVISIONAL EXPENDITURE DIFFERENCE
$5.6662b *$3.9065b $1.7597b
Economist Ronald Ramkissoon believes Monday’s Budget should do more than announce another set of measures. He said it should tell the country what happened to measures announced before.
“I am hoping that the initiatives that they would have announced, that they would provide some kind of evidence as to how these have been working. And if they are not working, why not?” he said.
He said the same test applies to spending: “Money can be spent, but are we getting value for money spent?”
Former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira said the presentation also has to be clear about the position the country is in.
“I think there has to be a lot of transparency in what he says,” she said.
Nunez-Tesheira said revenue remains a major test. She said Government has yet to show a “real, meaningful prescription” for generating revenue without leaning heavily on taxes, surcharges or other costs borne by consumers and businesses.
Returning projects
Guardian Media reviewed ten Public Sector Investment Programmes, from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2026. The search found projects that returned in successive development programmes while the records continued to show studies, surveys, environmental work, revised plans or close-off activity.
NIHERST Science City, Couva FY2017-FY2019: Existing contracts were being closed. NIHERST later recorded a board decision to recruit a firm for project close-off.
Forres Park engineered landfill FY2018-FY2026: Design and studies continued. FY2022 reported 81% complete; later programmes still listed assessment and environmental work.
Toco fast ferry port FY2017-FY2025: Named in nine successive PSIPs. Surveys, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and further environmental data continued. No completed port was verified.
La Brea dry dock / marine facility FY2024-FY2026: EIA work was followed by Phase I jetty work. Development Estimates show an expenditure trail, but the full scheme remains to be reconciled.
Scarborough berthing extension FY2023-FY2026: Assessment, designs, licensing and survey work continued across successive programmes.
Moruga fishing port FY2023-FY2026: The landside centre was delivered. A separate marine facility and jetty remained in the programme.
The Toco fast ferry port appeared in nine successive PSIPs from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2025. The records moved through borehole and geophysical surveys, an environmental impact assessment and further environmental data for the Environmental Management Authority. No completed port was verified in the review.
At Forres Park, an engineered landfill project appeared from fiscal 2018. The 2022 PSIP reported the project as 81 per cent complete while also describing monitoring and geotechnical work. Later programmes continued to record traffic analysis, waste-characterisation work, sampling and environmental assessment. The 2026 programme still provided for assessment work.
The NIHERST Science City project at Indian Trail, Couva, offers a different example. The 2019 PSIP said NIHERST had been asked to close existing contracts for a new approach. NIHERST later recorded an October 2018 board decision to recruit a firm for project close-off.
Ramkissoon said repeated projects need proper status reports.
“There’s a bad habit of not giving an up-to-date position on where the various projects are,” he said. “If the project is halfway, 50%, 75% or did not start, I think the taxpayers need to know what is the status of that project.”
He said not every project can be completed in one year. But taxpayers should be told why work did not happen, how far it reached and what comes next.
“The key word really is accountability,” he said.
Test on the economy
Economist Dr Vanus James said the spending figures sit inside a wider test of economic performance.
“It’s not what went wrong, it’s what was done relative to what was promised,” James said. “And what the outcome has been in terms of economic performance.”
James pointed to Standard & Poor’s projection of a 2 per cent contraction and said weakness in the energy sector continues to affect Government revenue. He said the foreign exchange shortage also reflects the country’s failure to diversify far enough into sectors that can earn their own foreign exchange.
“As a consequence of the failure to diversify, those problems persist,” he said. “And once they persist, they are going to drag down economic growth in the near term.”
Ramkissoon said the published data cannot be talked away. “I don’t know that, you know, we can pretend that this situation is anything different from the data before us,” he said.
Jobs – The numbers that matter most
The latest Central Statistical Office labour force figures show 564,000 people with jobs in the first quarter of 2026. That was 5,900 fewer than the 569,900 recorded three months earlier.
Over the same quarter, the number of unemployed people rose from 25,700 to 31,900, an increase of 6,200. The unemployment rate moved from 4.3 per cent to 5.4 per cent.
Those figures sit beside Government’s job claims. In April, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said more than 15,000 jobs had been delivered across ministries between April 2025 and April 2026.
Works and Infrastructure Minister Jearlean John told Guardian Media last week that Cabinet gave permission for 1,801 people to be hired through the National Recruitment Drive. She said all 1,801 remain working.
Guardian Media first spoke to workers hired from the National Recruitment Drive in May, when some described delayed pay and uncertainty over contract extensions.
One worker said employees had completed 11 fortnights of work but had been paid only through the sixth fortnight.
“We got the six fortnights. We haven’t get the seventh, eight, nine and 10 fortnight because this week from Monday is our 11th fortnight,” the worker said in May.
The same worker said only the first three-month contract had been received, although employees were told their jobs had been extended.
“We only got the first contract. We never get a second contract for the next three months,” the worker said. “I hear from the checker we get another three months extension.”
Another worker, a former legal secretary who had been unemployed since COVID and was nearing 60, said in May that she borrowed money from her son to travel to work while waiting to be paid.
“I took $800 from him for one month to go to work,” she said. “We have mothers and grandmothers borrowing money to travel to work.”
Those complaints were made in May. John last week confirmed that all 1,801 workers remain employed. Guardian Media found no later public ministry statement confirming whether the four outstanding
fortnights or the missing extension paperwork cited by the workers were later resolved. The current status of those specific complaints could not be independently verified.
A worker in the separate National Programme for the Upkeep of Public Spaces, NPUPS, said that work had made a major difference after a long period at home.
“At least it changed my life because $2,300 a fortnight was better than nothing,” she said.
But she wanted permanent employment and benefits.
“I would prefer that for instead of contract they make us permanent, so at least we could get some sick leave and holidays and vacation and whatever, because sometimes, you know, when you’re sick, you stay home and you’re not getting pay for it.”
Nunez-Tesheira said employment changes have also left Government with a social and economic problem to answer. She questioned whether expanded social programmes and job training are being used to offset the effect of workers being displaced from other State programmes.
The Government’s Revitalisation Blueprint carries a much bigger employment promise. In September, John said the ten-year plan was projected to generate up to 72,000 jobs at peak rollout.
James said the number alone is not the test.
“The way you create sustainable jobs on this scale, 72,000, is not particularly huge, but nonetheless, the way you do it is you diversify the structure of the economy,” he said. “You create productivity growth, you exploit your dynamic advantages, both comparative and innovative advantages.”
He added: “You may get 72,000 jobs, but they will not be the high-income jobs that people are clamoring for.”
Referring to the reorganisation of Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme and the Unemployment Relief Programme, James called it “just another kind of make-work programme under different management arrangements.”
