Even though the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that the Opposition’s No-Confidence Motion was successfully passed and consequential orders are to follow on July 12, Finance Minister Winston Jordan has initiated the process for budget 2020 preparation. But Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed at a press conference today that a PPP Government would not recognise any budget framework put together by Jordan.
In fact, the official said that the PPP would start from scratch and ensure that all expenditure made by the current regime is scrutinised. Further to this, Jagdeo assured that a PPP administration would eliminate the wanton excesses on ministerial travel and rental of buildings and reroute those monies to the restoration of governmental grants for the people.
In any case, the PPP General Secretary said that Jordan was always a “pen pusher”. He stressed that during his time as Finance Minister and President, which spanned from 1993 to 2011, Jordan was never part of policy discussions for the budget. Jagdeo insisted that Jordan has no experience in preparing budgets within the framework of developmental policies while noting that this is reflected in his “crappy budgets”.
The PPP General Secretary did not outline any consequences for anyone who goes through with budget 2020 preparations. He said that the party is not interested in going after public servants and would advise them to simply go through the motions.
Overall, the Opposition Leader said he is appalled that the Finance Minister would even issue a financial circular on budget preparation and for its subsequent presentation on November 25 considering the CCJ’s ruling.
Jagdeo said, “This is not the Jordan I know…The prospect of losing office seems to be unhinging him.”
