Complicated
In a process complicated by the prorogation of parliament and the holding of elections after the mandatory budget approval period had passed, the Granger administration had to put together a budget for 2015. The window for doing so was tight and the budget of necessity also had to squeeze in government demand for goods and services in 2015 in a finite period of time. The budget is the government’s policy document. It tells what principles the government intends to pursue and the policy lines that it intends to use as a means of achieving its broad goals. The policy lines, actions and policy measures of importance receive monetary allocations which in themselves offer some guide to the priorities of the government. The things of interest to Guyanese are hidden within that thicket of the many elements of public policy.
The general tendency is for Guyanese to look in the budget for the numbers that tell them how much importance the government attaches to them. The standard measure is often how much more money they will receive or will be able to take home as a consequence of adjustments in salary or adjustments in tax rates. In other words,
