Guyana : Public Expenditure Review

Since independence in 1966,
Guyana's economy has gone through a state control of
major productive sectors, and financial institutions -
including controls of prices, credit, and foreign exchange -
to a combination of political/social unrest, with terms of
trade deterioration, and slow economic growth. This led
Guyana to become the fourth poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere, despite its rich endowment in mineral resources,
biodiversity, and forested land. In this context, the main
objective of the Public Expenditure Review (PER) is to
analyze its expenditures so as to gain understanding of the
structure of Government's budget processes to allow its
execution, and, assist the Government in reorienting
policies, institutions, and expenditures, to achieve private
sector-led growth, and better services to the poor. The PER
identifies a number of weaknesses in the budget process,
namely, the need for intermediate steps to set the budget
within a forward-looking medium term expenditure framework,
the need to prepare current and capital expenditure budgets
jointly, planning for future recurrent costs, and, the need
to present the budget to Parliament on a timely basis with
adequate information. Recommendations suggest the budget be
prepared within a national development program, and a
multi-year rolling expenditure framework, with integrated
budget processes for current, and capital expenditures, and,
strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Finance for
economic modeling, and forecasting. The report assesses
sectoral policies, and expenditures in four broad areas:
health, education, poverty programs, and infrastructure,
focusing on how policies, incentives, and budgetary
allocations can change to improve economic efficiency, and
poverty alleviation.