Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde has raised serious concerns over the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration’s handling of public finances, warning that the approach to Budget 2026 risks perpetuating a pattern of opacity, extravagance, and entrenched inequality.

In his column “From the Desk of Roysdale Forde,” he observes that the government’s recent statement on budget preparations—“the government is moving ahead with preparations for Budget 2026 to ensure timely delivery on manifesto promises”—is “less an assurance of progress than a continuation of a now-familiar pattern: grandiose rhetoric concealing a governance model steeped in opacity and extravagance.”

Forde notes that the 2025 National Budget, presented on 17 January as the largest in Guyana’s history at G$1.382 trillion—a 20.6% increase over 2024—was positioned as a remedy to lingering post-pandemic challenges. Yet, barely four months later, Senior Minister Dr Ashni Singh secured parliamentary approval for a G$57.5 billion Supplementary Appropriation Bill to “complete a range of programmes such as its expansive electricity initiative.” Forde critiques this move, highlighting that it “stretched the fiscal envelope with minimal forensic scrutiny,” coming just three months before the 2025 general elections.

The Mid-Year Report revealed significant expenditure: G$104.6 billion to the Ministry of Public Works for roads, G$275.9 million for Amerindian water projects, and billions more under “contingencies.” Forde warns that disbursements have “routinely bypassed rigorous audit trails and were directed to preferred contractors, flouting Article 172 of the Constitution which sanctifies the Consolidated Fund and mandates legislative sanction for every cent withdrawn.”

He also highlights the deliberate culture of secrecy, noting that the Public Accounts Committee remains “paralysed by chronically delayed Auditor General reports,” leaving citizens to “piece together the fate of their patrimony from sporadic leaks and after-the-fact disclosures.” This opacity, Forde argues, “not only undermines democratic accountability but facilitates plunder.”

The senior counsel points to a growing debt burden, stating that since 2020, the PPP/C has driven external public debt beyond US$5 billion (approximately G$1 trillion), largely to fund mega-projects guaranteed by the state. However, Forde argues that the award of many contracts “openly violates the Procurement Act 2003, which demands open, competitive tendering in the public interest.”

He cites three illustrative breaches:

• The Guyana Police Force split 62 contracts totalling G$15 million to remain below the threshold requiring open tender, a violation confirmed by the Auditor General’s Report for 2024.

• The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board awarded a contract exceeding G$200 million for the Belle Air Park housing development without competitive bidding.

• Components of the US$1.2 billion Demerara River Crossing were awarded in late 2024 through restrictive tendering with no published justification.

Forde underscores that these lapses reflect a systemic pattern that “breeds contempt for the rule of law and entrenches a kleptocratic order favouring the connected few.”

Most troubling, he observes, is the persistence of widespread poverty amid Guyana’s oil windfall. Despite producing over 650,000 barrels per day and collecting annual revenues exceeding US$10 billion, the World Bank’s 2019 household survey shows that 48.4% of Guyanese live below the international poverty line of US$6.85 per day. Forde asserts that in a nation of abundance, “the continuation of poverty on this scale is not misfortune; it is policy.”

Quoting former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said that “there can be no true democracy without a culture of transparency and accountability,” Forde urges the government to ensure that “budgets are debated in daylight, contracts awarded through open competition, and oil wealth translated into dignity for the 48.4% who still await their share of the promise.”

Forde concludes that the 2026 Budget must not repeat past mistakes; it must “mark the moment when sunlight, in Justice Brandeis’s immortal phrase, finally disinfects the darkened corridors of Guyanese public finance.”