Discretionary funds

Satiricus breathed a sigh of relief. All the “long talk” was over in the Budget “debate”. Satiricus really had no time with the first week of this annual ritual. It was just an opportunity for the politicians to “mouth off” and show how much they knew. And even there, they cheated: all excepting a handful of them like Nagga Man, had to read from notes.

But this week was the real deal…who was going to get what, when and where – money that is. And while some philosopher claimed “money can’t buy happiness”, Satiricus was satisfied it could but a facsimile close enough to satisfy most folks. Satiricus wanted to know how well they were treating his favourite politician – the Prime Moocher, Nagga Man.

The big bad PPCEE had complained about the fantastic raise the Moocher had wangled for himself – Gy$1.7 million per month! But he breathed a sigh of relief when they didn’t cut that. In the couple of years since Naga Man had completed law school while in his sixties, he was earning multimillions monthly. Just to sign a few papers for NOCIL, he’s gotten Gy$7 million!! People didn’t appreciate what a huge salary cut he’d taken to serve the people as the Prime Moocher.

Satiricus was also pleased the PPCEE hadn’t cut the Gy$30 million to fix up the PM’s residence on Main Street before Nagga Man moved in. Those rats in the oven had left a terrible stench…even worse that the stench from the $multimillion-contract his friend Rum Jhaat had given to his client Feather Load.

And since the Prime Moocher didn’t have any line responsibility and was only in charge of the State newspaper and television, Satiricus was very happy that the Prime Moocher got Gy$150 million for his TV station – Gy$50 million more than last year.

But why did the PPCEE have to hound him about what he would use the extra money for? How could he be expected to know about petty things like money? Why couldn’t they trust a man of the Prime Moocher’s integrity?

But that was typical of the petty mentality of the PPCEE that had persecuted Nagga Man for years about his religion. They were upset that Nagga Man allocated Gy$10 million for himself as his “discretionary spending”. So what if he already had millions allocated for “entertainment” and everything he did was paid for by the State?

Did they believe Nagga Man didn’t have discretion to spend the Gy$10 million wisely? Did they think he would blow the whole Gy$10 million on Bush Rum at one back street dive? Satiricus for one, knew Nagga Man knew every Bush Rum haunt in Guyana, and had faith the Prime Moocher would spread the Gy$10 million equitably.