P.S.U. Calls for Greater Dilligence in G.O.B. Budgeting

As the National Assembly prepares for the budget presentation and debate ahead of the new fiscal year, there’s a lot of chatter about how the Ministry of Youth and Sports is being funded. This has led to some serious questions about the whole budget preparation process. Dean Flowers, the President of the Public Service Union, isn’t holding back—he argues that there’s not enough seriousness when it comes to putting these budgets together.

 

Dean Flowers, President, P.S.U.

“I do not engage in the budgetary exercises. I think that the public service union has consistently stated that there is little seriousness given to the preparation of these budgets. I know the approach has changed to the performance based. But if you look at all the budgets of the last twenty or ten years, not much has changed in terms of the program budgeting. I want to draw an analysis of the budget presented by the office of the auditor general. You will see that anything hardly change in that budget year after year, after year. The department’s targets or the personnel, it is just a cut and paste exercise. I say that to say that where the proposed budget for youths and sports is concerned, it might have had anything to do with what is being depicted int eh budget. It is just numbers throwing out there and no real analysis as to whether these things are actually needed or these cost area actually needed or going to the line items to which they are airmarked. This is a failure of the past auditor general to conduct audits of these ministries to ensure that what was approved was being spent for that they were approved for.”