Election Questions on Finance

As we enter election mode it is important to ask the right questions of your politicians in order to determine for which party to vote. The critical concern first and foremost is for fiscal responsibility i.e. not to spend more than you earn. From our own experience and from the crisis that is happening in Europe, our first question is “Is your party committed to eliminating budget deficits?”. We have seen where both parties have constantly borrowed to fund deficits and we are now left with a debt that we can probably never repay. The follow up question is whether your party is committed to borrowing less in the future? Is your party prepared to make the difficult decisions in order to ensure the success of debt reduction? Will your party stay with the International Monetary Fund who oversees your budget or will you take some other option and if so what option would this be? Our aim here is to determine if there is a plan to deal with our financial crisis.

Closely linked to this is the area of accountability in which both parties have fallen short. The question to be asked is whether the party is prepared to ensure that proper safeguards are put in place to safeguard the use of the taxpayer’s money? Additionally one might ask “ Is your party prepared to be transparent in all of its dealings with all major projects being subject to review by an external body e.g. contractor general’s department.? Is the party prepared to act on the findings of the review body or will the findings simply be ignored? Are you prepared to fire or prosecute where necessary those who are found to have breached the rules? The purpose of these questions is to determine if either party is prepared to change from the poor handling of resources to being a government that is responsible to be trusted with our finances. A major part of accountability is not just doing the right thing but also taking responsibility when things go wrong. Too many times breaches of regulations are brought to the public but no action is taken to resolve them or to ensure that they do not happen again.

If we are going to move this country forward then it is critical that the next government recognize the seriousness of the situation and be prepared to act in the interest of the country. A legacy of borrowing has done nothing but make the future seem bleak. What we need now is a government who understands that we can not borrow our way to success and prosperity. The time for action is now, who will step up to the mark and ensure the future success of our nation.

Tags: Finance, politics