Double-standards at the Ministry of Finance

Wastage and unnecessary expenditures continue unabated at the Ministry of Finance . It is unacceptable that at a moment when the Minister is claiming that he is unable to meet the Rs 375- cost of living allowance-for pensioners because there are other priorities, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) is being profligate with taxpayers’ money creating new institutions and posts for the cronies and bootlickers. The Ministry of Finance is supposed to be a role model for others, an example in terms of “ efficiency and effectiveness” of expenditures. Other Ministries are frequently required to provide justifications for the new personnel being recruited. The mindset changes when the same logic is expected to be applied to them.

You have now the Economic and Research Bureau and Economic Advisory Council supplementing the EDB, all under the Ministry of Finance !!! On top of that you have a mega-ministry that has merged three cadres- the Finance Management Analysts of the ex-Management Audit Bureau, Economists of the ex-Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (MEPD) and Budget Analysts of the Ministry of Finance (MoF). Pre -2006, before the merger, there were less than 20 economists and analysts working on the Budget and on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework/Programme Based Budgeting (MTEF/PBB). Now though they have jettisoned the PBB and given up on strategic planning and research, there are some 115 Analysts, 57 Lead Analysts , 6 to 8 directors and 4 Deputy Financial Secretaries- mostly for “les petits copains” selected on the basis of their subservience to the Financial Secretary. Are we getting value for money ?

Over the years, MoF has had an overly budgetary focus and had been completely absent on planning and policy making, on reform strategies, on issues of national importance and on sectoral analyses to support growth. There is no research, analysis and evaluation work that are presently being carried out -which had been the core activities of the earlier MEPD- the very core competencies that our taxpayers can rely upon to resolve our national problems and challenges.

Morever, MoF has not been able to achieve much in terms of “deliverology”-for e.g it has consistently failed to address the underlying causes of implementation delays especially in critical poductive infrastructure- in water, logistics, power and energy-which has affected the current growth potential .

Instead of a lean, efficient and effective organisational structure, they have added layers upon layers such that it has become a hulk of an unmanageable monstrosity with such a heavy number of deputy financial secretaries leading “directors” which need a whole substrata of lead analysts and analysts to carry out the budget exercise (a lesser burden now without a genuine Programme or Performance Based Budget ) which could have been performed by at least a fourth of them. We are not getting value for money and we are paying dearly for this ineffective mega-Ministry - funds which could have been allocated to other priority expenditures.

21Prakash Neerohoo, Raj Ramlugun and 19 others

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