The purpose of this section is to draw to the attention of policy makers the challenging issues faced by the country, whether arising out of the Budget presentation or otherwise. Where we consider certain matters of special importance we may even repeat them, as we have done in the past with the NIS, Inequality, the University of Guyana, and the state of our democracy.
Over the past couple of years we addressed the threat of Venezuela arising from our dependence on that country for the supply of oil and the purchase of our rice, the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, the Travails of the NIS, Inequality, the University of Guyana, and the Court’s decision ruling it unconstitutional for the National Assembly to cut the Budget. That decision, arising out of the 2012 Budget has been appealed but that appeal is languishing before the country’s under-worked Court of Appeal.
Last year we addressed the reform of the Judiciary but that appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Indeed, in recognition of the constitutional principle of separation of powers, the Courts have been made financially autonomous. The Minister of Finance has announced the intention to prescribe rules of accounting to make such bodies accountable to the taxpayers and the public which finance them. It is left to be seen how effective those measures will be in the absence of wider reform including the composition of the Judicial Service Commission and the administration of the courts.
On the other hand, and we take no credit for this, we are gratified that the Minister of Finance has acknowledged our society’s responsibility for succeeding generations soon after we dealt with the Public Trust Doctrine and that Budget 2015 has made some serious efforts to address the plight of the poor.
