LETTER OF THE DAY - Adjustments to Budget too pervasive

The Editor, Sir:

A budget is "a financial plan of action" and our technocrats - across both administrations - should possess the expertise to draft a proper well-thought through estimate (whether fixed or flexible). Why aren't we pricing the contingencies into the budgets and projections?

These contingencies must take into account Jamaica's realities:

• Location in the hurricane belt;
• A country beset by crime and sporadic upheavals;
• Adjustments/instability in commodity prices (especially imports);

Relatively poor infrastructure such as in government buildings, e.g. schools, police stations; roads; poorly maintained drains and verges; improperly constructed roads and Third World electricity infrastructure, i.e. easily damaged by the elements or vandals.

I am sure Jamaica has capable economists, accountants and actuaries who can help to price the potential risks and estimate the possible cost of damage, upheavals and other circumstances that will place demands on the Budget or projections annually. These factors must be taken into account at the initial crafting of these projections/plans to prevent the piecemeal approach being adopted by successive administrations over the decades.

Let's get beyond the political expediency of presenting a 'desirable' Budget and make the realistic projections that take into account these and other quantitative realities.

Perhaps, just perhaps, this may create a wake-up call for us to begin to produce our way out of this quagmire of spiralling debt.

I am, etc.,

C. SMITH

c_jas2002@yahoo.com

St Ann