Peter Espeut
ABOUT A YEAR AGO I gave the Ministry of Finance credit for pulling off what will prove to be a famous public relations gambit in plundering the fund of the National Housing Trust. The reason for separating the NHT funds from the Consolidated Fund of the country is so that funds from the former are not mixed up with general revenue and expenditure, but will be used for the specific purposes defined by law.
You will recall that those raided funds were used for a laudable purpose - to support the education system - expenses supposed to be covered from the Consolidated Fund. In that column I called this a Samfie Trick to fund the general budget by raiding the NHT. The Government has a huge national debt, a series of government ministries demanding budget increases, and this huge pool of money sitting there growing.
WHAT EXCUSE TO USE
I wondered whether in the brainstorming, a discussion went something like this:
How can we get our hands on some of the money in the NHT fund to augment the Budget? What excuse can we use? Can we say we want to use some to repay our national debt? No, the public would never go for it. Can we say we want to use some to pay the salaries of politicians and civil servants? No! There would be a hue and cry. Can we say we want to use some of the NHT money to pay for trips abroad to raise more loans? No, that would open the door to the suggestion that the trust fund could just be merged with the Consolidated Fund. What about using some to fund education?
That's it! No one would dare to come out in public and fight against spending on education for the poor. And then we can use some of the money we were going to spend on education to pay the national debt, to pay ourselves, and to travel abroad to raise more loans.
What happened last year was naked budget replacement; it was the equivalent of taking money from the NHT and putting it into the Consolidated Fund.
They got away with it in 2005 and so the same strategy is being tried in 2006 with the fund of the National Insurance Scheme. The same or similar conditions prevail: the national debt is even bigger, a series of salary increases of public servants is due, the ministries are demanding budget increases, and the hurricane season is upon us; and the NIS fund is sitting there growing.
And there is something else: the salaries of Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament are to be raised this financial year, and money has to be found for that! From where is the Minister of Finance going to get the money to increase the salaries of his colleagues? He can't look them in the face and say: "Ah doah have de money!"
LOAN SCHEME
The Government also wants to capitalise a loan scheme to encourage small and micro-businesses. What a good thing! Poor people may benefit! It seems to be exactly what MIDA was created several years ago to do, but the duplication serves a good purpose: they can't raid the NIS to increase the salaries of politicians, but they can create a public relations case to raid the NIS fund to fund a loan scheme for poor people. And then the money they would have put into that loan scheme from the Consolidated Fund they will now use to pay themselves a salary increase. Problem solved!
Usually a samfie trick does not work on the same persons twice. Are we that gullible?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
