Government has taken its eyes off the ball for the sake of an upcoming election, and has abandoned its own plan to cut expenditure by $75 million this year, says opposition Senator Kerrie Symmonds.
Calling this a “Philistine” approach and a betrayal of four years of trust, he told the Senate today during debate on the Appropriation Bill 2012 that Government was on “a premeditated path to squandermania”, and if its enthusiasm to spend was not reined in, any chance of economic recovery would be aborted.
Symmonds recalled that Government’s medium-term fiscal strategy (MTFS) objectives included returning economic growth to three per cent by 2012, improving the country’s investment grade rating, balancing the budget by 2013-2015 and accomplishing a small fiscal surplus by 2015-2016, but “we had the unfortunate revelation in November, 2011 that Government had revised its MTFS”.
“On the expenditure side, Government’s aim was to cut spending as a percentage of GDP (gross domestic product) by 0.75 per cent [$75 million] … except for the 2012-2013 period. What is the magic about this year, Ma’am? The only thing that comes to mind is that this is what they call the election year. That’s why I say there’s a lot of hodgepodge taking place in the name of these Estimates that has seemingly caused this Government to takes its eyes off the ball,” Symmonds said.
Adding that Barbadians had been asked to buy into the national goal of balancing the budget toward economic recovery, he said this objective now seemed to be on pause and asked: “Where’s the fiscal prudence in putting a $75 million projected cut entirely on hold because you have an election coming?” (RJ)
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