Bring accountability, not more budget theatrics

Trinidad and Tobago’s annual budget has become more performance than measurement, according to this editorial. Parliament hears hours of speeches, billions are allocated on paper, and the Government declares that the country is heading toward prosperity. The harder question is what will actually change within 12 months.

The editorial argues that development cannot be reduced to a financial-year spending plan. It includes productivity, infrastructure, investment, education, healthcare, technology, energy security, institutional reform and internationally competitive industries. An allocation, it says, does not amount to a completed project, a functioning hospital, a modern road or a new private-sector job.

The proposed test is straightforward: how many projects were completed, how many met their deadlines and how many exceeded their budgets? Other measures include private investment, new businesses, export growth, productivity, foreign direct investment, manufacturing and agricultural output, and whether the country is more competitive than it was five years ago.

Instead, the editorial says, budget documents often repeat earlier promises while unresolved problems remain. Roads still need repairs, public-sector projects remain unfinished, healthcare capacity is inadequate, bureaucracy is excessive and investors face obstacles. Economic diversification, it argues, remains a slogan rather than a completed transformation.

The conclusion is a call for accountability rather than another catalogue of planned expenditure. The budget should provide a mechanism for determining whether earlier spending delivered results, not simply another occasion for announcing what the Government intends to do.