How far ahead does Trinidad and Tobago plan? When it comes to money, the answer is one year.
Every year, we wait for the budget. We argue for weeks about who got what. Then the year ends, and we start again. Is that the best way to run a country?
The things we want most take years to deliver: good health care, safe streets, clean water, good schools and jobs. A one-year plan makes us think short-term. Projects start, slow down, stop, and sometimes get dropped.
We have seen this. Work on the National Oncology Centre at Mt Hope began in 2007, with an estimate of about $144 million. It stalled. A new contract worth over $445 million followed in 2013. Years later, the Express reported that it still lay in ruins after hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Couva Children’s Hospital was built and commissioned in 2015. The Prime Minister has since said it needs at least $78.2 million in repairs and replacements. When projects stop and start, taxpayers pay twice.
Our income also goes up and down with oil and gas prices. When we plan one year at a time, we scramble when prices fall. A five-year plan would help us get ready.
A five-year budget would also help citizens. Governments are elected for five years. At the start, they should tell us what they plan to do, what it will cost, and when it will be done.
Then we can judge them by that plan.
We would still check progress every year. Parliament would still review the spending, and the plan could be adjusted when things change. Families and businesses plan beyond one year. A country should, too.
I ask the Government, the Opposition and the public to start the conversation now: what would a five-year budget look like for our country? Our children deserve a country that plans beyond next year.
