We're not quite sure if it's transparency of public relations, but it is something that government has started to release its month to month budgetary figures to the general public.
A review of the figures for the beginning of April to the end of July show that government continues to run a major deficit, even as it restrains spending. While the recurrent performance is good, Capital II and III are down almost a third and debt servicing is up sharply from $118 million to $150 million over 25%, a lot of money and a sure sign of poor budget programming. That debt service does not include DFC payments, $19 million of which are hidden away in Capital II.
As we noted, efforts to contain spending do seem to be paying off, but areas such as goods and service show a sharp increase from $79 million to $91 million dollar. Again, while the transparency is welcome, it's not without the sense of gimmickry because it's both difficult and misleading to compare figures monthly, or even quarterly when the budget is programmed for a 12-month cycle.
