Opposition Senator Lester Henry says Government continues to spend excessively with little economic development. Henry said this in his contribution to yesterday’s senate debate on the 2015 budget, which was presented earlier by Finance and the Economy Minister Larry Howai. Henry said the Government had spent between $280 to $300 billion since assuming office in 2010 without proper accountability.
He said the $64.4 billion fiscal package was more of the same. He said the Government had failed to account for the 2014 allocations. He also said the Government was allowing state agencies to borrow from private institutions. “So the debt shows up some time after. So that debt is out there. We don’t know what extent it is. But when it reaches a critical mass the Government will issue a bond to raise money to pay off (the debt).”
He also said since assuming power the Government had borrowed an estimated US$800 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Henry said the Government had spent more than it projected, and the annual projected growth was never achieved. He stressed the growth rate was not commensurate with the level of Government spending.
Howai said new procurement legislation would be brought to Parliament during the current session, although two weeks ago, he indicated that he did not expect the legislation to be implemented within the next year. Howai also said the Government was moving to resolve the Clico/HCU matters following the recent arbitration decision on Clico’s shares in Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd.
The three-member arbitration tribunal, which had been sitting on the shareholder oppression matter brought by Consolidated Energy Ltd (CEL) since May 2011, directed Clico and CL Financial to make an offer to CEL within 14 days of September 11. The combined offer amounts to US$1.175 billion (TT$7.5 billion), which was the value of Clico and CL Financial's stake in MHTL arrived at by the arbitration.
Howai said new credit union legislation was also to be brought to Parliament soon.