2020 and the Budget

October 06, 2004

So the Budget for October '04-October '05 will be read in Parliament on Friday. I have no patience with this annual exercise of shop-listing sources of revenue side by side with that of areas of intended expenditure or, in a worst-case scenario, Government's capability to manage a deficit, which is a situation with which we have not been visited since 1983 or thereabouts.

We know that the revenues are assured, given the proven reserves of oil and gas and given the direct foreign investments to the tune of billions of US dollars that have been expended to mine these resources and to refine petro-chemicals such as urea, methanol, etc.

Revenues from this sector in particular are the least of our problems. What has always been challenging is how to spend $20 or $22 plus billion in 12 months.

It is laughable that year after year we keep fooling ourselves and grandstanding as if this society has the capacity to absorb that level of expenditure in capital works and social infrastructure. It is just not on. And every year we keep mouthing certain itemised expenditures that are never realised.

I for one would prefer five-year development plans and five-year Budgets with probable yearly supplemental balance sheets to indicate benchmarks along the way that are truly realistic. And stop the blasted mamaguy.

At this time every year, if one were to move around the various ministries and talk with senior officers from Permanent Secretaries down, what becomes poignantly evident is their disillusionment and their frustration with the fact that, once again, they are faced with preparing the requirements for a new Budget and not one damn significant, fundamental thing has been accomplished within their purview.

It is amazing. I am yet to meet a senior public servant who is not frustrated with archaic systems and ignorant politicians who never seem to tire of expounding about public service reform. Yet every year "money goes back," so to speak, to the "Exchequer" because of the incapacity to realise drawn-downs from the earmarked "votes." The monies are clearly identified but they cannot be spent.

At this time each year, senior officers, in order to save some face, get busy fighting to spend money by either rushing to justify and push through certain projects that have been outstanding, or they simply expend on maintenance and replacements such as new big-screen TVs and so on.

We keep spinning top in mud; that is why I agree with the commentator who insists that T&T is a constipated society.

Twenty twenty to me is not a year. There can be no time lines attached to the process of development. And development has little to do with the quantum of revenues. It has more to do with mindset, attitudes and approaches to dealing with problems.

That is why Barbados is way ahead of T&T on the way to developed country status. Barbados does not throw money at problems as we do in T&T simply because we have the money, which in fact is odious vulgarity quite typical of parvenus and the nouveau riche. The Bajans have a more studied approach to process and transformation.

Look, this 2004 Budget will certainly tell whether we are learning anything, if it seeks to initiate a number of provisions to solve certain lingering, irritating problems.

First and foremost, the Public Service, which is the major agency of governmental implementation, must be reformed and transformed from top to bottom and be provided with modern management systems that will facilitate proper planning and expeditious execution.

It is time to move beyond mere talk and endless white papers outlining glorious intentions. Education problems, health service problems and crime detection and crime-fighting problems are all systemic in nature and will only be broached in the process of widespread Public Service reform.

Secondly, the Budget of 2004 must deal with a cohesive national transportation plan.

For the past year, the Minister of Works, and now chairman of the ruling PNM, has been talking about developing a network of roads, starting with secondary roads, to take up or divert some of the pressure away from the major roads.

To date, all that has been done is the widening of the tunnel linking Santa Cruz to Maracas and Maraval.

We hear about international consultants coming to do studies. Somebody has to tell this Minster of Works that the old "City and Guild" professionals who worked that ministry in the late '50s and early to mid '60s did develop the plans for the required network of roads and those plans have been sitting in that ministry for over 40 years.

Get to stepping, man! We do not need any foreign consultants to come, review the works of locals and regurgitate them under new fancy covers.

I for one strongly recommend that we ring the islands of T&T with a modern rail system as part of the transportation plan. Others have strongly suggested a monorail system for the east-west corridor.

I can recall travelling to Port-of-Spain from San Juan on one of the very first set of buses after the Priority Bus Route was opened. When that bus reached Port-of-Spain there was a spontaneous outburst of applause from all the passengers. I never witnessed anything like that before or since. It is a word to the wise.

Thirdly, we have given the world pan, calypso, Carnival, etc. It is not gas and oil and methanol that make us who we are in this world. Our artistic cultural products have made us who we are. The world is bowing to us, and we seem blind to this.

At the same time, we keep talking about developing other sectors like tourism and agriculture. Tourists do not come here to hear Beethoven and eat caviar. They come here to hear pan, calypso, chutney, etc, and eat pelau, callaloo, roti and dasheen. In addition, we must feed ourselves.

We acknowledge that $3 billion has been set aside for a rainy day, so it means that we are not hand to mouth. This Budget must end the talk once and for all. Build the blasted Centre for the Performing Arts now and plough money into agriculture, provide lands to ex-workers to diversify agriculture, rebuild the cocoa industry, etc, etc!

Lastly, the Guardian editorial of last Monday, titled "The rain came, the floods followed," says: "...If Port-of-Spain is going to be a modern city suited to becoming the capital of the T&T of Vision 2020, then we've got to begin figuring out where all the water goes..."

Fine, but being close to WASA's management for the past decade or so, I also know the biggest problem Port-of-Spain will face in the next few years, given all the physical development that is taking place- ACS headquarters, two 20-storey towers and much, much more-is what to do with all the s---.