Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo says Trinidad and Tobago’s economic future hinges not on finding new money, but on using existing resources wisely.
The Finance Minister delivered a $59.2 billion Budget on Monday, with Education and Training, Health, and National Security once again topping the list.
At a Post-Budget Panel Discussion hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association on Tuesday afternoon, he sought to explain and respond as to where the revenue will come from.
” A lot of people are asking where the money is going to come from. The money comes from what exists here. There is money in the system. How it is used has always been the difficulty.”
The Finance Minister argued that the Budget could have been a surplus if not for the billions lost in previous years.
“The Office of the Procurement Regulator identified $5 billion lost every year in contracts. Nobody knew if it was properly awarded, if work was actually done, but money was spent, $5 billion. I just projected a deficit of $3.8 billion. If I had that $5 billion crookedly lost money, I wouldn’t even have a deficit. It would have been surplus.”
Minister Tancoo acknowledged that the real challenge lies in implementation.
“I am not taking this thing for granted. What exists today in the Ministries, etcetera, would have existed before when we did not fully implement our plans as a country. I wasn’t there at that time. So we created the Economic Resilience Council under the Office of the Prime Minister. If you have a new project idea that you want to push forward, that’s the Council you bring it to. That’s chaired by the Prime Minister and I am the co-chair as Minister of Finance.”
Despite making what he called “hard” and “bitter” decisions, he said the impact on the citizenry would not be drastic.
“Remember Buckley’s? The slogan was ‘it tastes bitter, but it works.’ Bitter medicine is one way, but you could take Vicks. I don’t know if they add sugar or what, but you could take Vicks and you could still treat the same medical requirement. So the point I’m trying to make is we took some hard, bitter decisions yesterday. Did you feel it?”
The Minister also challenged the business community to step up to ensure the true development of the economy.
“I signed up to make this country better and I’m willing to sacrifice to make this country even better. Are you? Are we ready, ladies and gentlemen? This is a call to arms for each and every member sitting here today to step up, to move forward, to help us build, because if we do not, hell will happen in this country.”