Since independence in 1966,Guyana's economy has gone through a state control ofmajor productive sectors, and financial institutions -including controls of prices, credit, and foreign exchange -to a combination of political/social unrest, with terms oftrade deterioration, and slow economic growth. This ledGuyana to become the fourth poorest country in the WesternHemisphere, despite its rich endowment in mineral resources,biodiversity, and forested land. In this context, the mainobjective of the Public Expenditure Review (PER) is toanalyze its expenditures so as to gain understanding of thestructure of Government's budget processes to allow itsexecution, and, assist the Government in reorientingpolicies, institutions, and expenditures, to achieve privatesector-led growth, and better services to the poor. The PERidentifies a number of weaknesses in the budget process,namely, the need for intermediate steps to set the budgetwithin a forward-looking medium term expenditure framework,the need to prepare current and capital expenditure budgetsjointly, planning for future recurrent costs, and, the needto present the budget to Parliament on a timely basis withadequate information. Recommendations suggest the budget beprepared within a national development program, and amulti-year rolling expenditure framework, with integratedbudget processes for current, and capital expenditures, and,strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Finance foreconomic modeling, and forecasting. The report assessessectoral policies, and expenditures in four broad areas:health, education, poverty programs, and infrastructure,focusing on how policies, incentives, and budgetaryallocations can change to improve economic efficiency, andpoverty alleviation.
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