The T&T Guardian continues its performance review of the Dr Keith Rowley-led Government as it marks one year in office on Wednesday. Today, political analyst Indera Sagewan-Alli gives her assessment.
Low performance
Indera Sagewan-Alli was blunt. She said the Government had not performed “very well” and attributed that to the “sense of fear and uncertainty” which characterised the economy.
Although she did not rate the Government out of ten for its overall performance and in the key areas, Sagewan-Alli instead gave her candid opinion. Her summary of their performance was that the Government had failed.
Her analysis was that there is a sense of stagnation in the country and reports of job cuts, rising prices, increased mortgage and utility rates were the new expectations.
The 2016/2017 budget of $63 billion, she said, was revised this year to $59 billion, yet the evidence of the expenditure was not apparent in the economy.
Crime/security: “Poorly”
In the area of crime/security, she rated Government “poorly,” saying the runaway crime statistics was frightening.
“Given that the security of the nation is a function of the Government, it must take responsibility. This situation is affecting an already fledgling tourism industry. Only last week the government of Canada upgraded its travel advisory to its citizens against coming to Trinidad and Tobago because of the continued upsurge in criminal activity,” she said.
She added the large sum allocated to the Ministry of National Security in the budget was not translating into lower crime.
Education: “Bare pass”
While the Government found “the will” to adjust the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (Gate) programme and the laptop programme, she said these adjustments were made primarily to save on expenditure instead of focusing on “deeper and more structural problems.”
Sagewan-Alli said: “Now while it’s a start, there is so much more thinking through that is needed to ensure that these programmes are truly working in the best interest of the country’s growth agenda.”
Healthcare: “Fail”
She gave an outright failing grade in this area, saying the Government has maintained the status quo.
“And while the sector did not suffer in the national budget allocation, this has been a year characterised by serious shortages in medicines, particularly those available through the Chronic Disease Assistance Programme.
“Chief amongst these is the shortage of cancer treatment medicine. This is a matter of life and death to the recipients and the current shortages can negatively impact people’s chances of recovery,” she said.
She said this was due to the lack of procurement planning.
Economy: “Very poor”
She said there were no signs that Government had any proper plans in place to address the worsening economic situation. She said every sector had contracted this year, unemployment increased, cost of living increased, public debt accelerated and revenue contracted.
Accountability and transparency: “Business as usual”
On these two issues, Sagewan-Alli said: “It is business as usual. We are no more presented with information than before. This feeds the sense of uncertainly and fear.”
Make economic diversification a priority
Asked what the Government could have done differently in the last year to improve on its performance, she said it could have made economic diversification its number one priority.
Even as it managed and minimised the social fallout from a declining purse, which it has done, Sagewan-Alli said it needed to be setting up parallel mechanisms to derive new growth and revenue sources for the economy.
“Now this is not a short-term goal, but it needs to be put into the public domain as the way forward so that the people can all rally around a pathway to innovative growth,” she said.
“Maybe this is happening behind the scenes, but from where I sit I am not sensitised to its development.”
As for advice to the Government as it moves into its second year, she said it should establish and resource a full-time institution focused on economic diversification; on analysing industry by industry to determine where we should develop based on robust market analysis, value chain analysis, cluster mapping and development.