Government entities are holding bills totalling approximately $8 billion but the finance ministry is yet to provide the money to pay them.

In fact, most of the bills have already been approved by the finance ministry but with government revenue down, there is just no money to pay the suppliers.

"That means that even though approval was given for the expenditure, the disbursement to the ministries was $8 billion less and those are obligations that have to be picked up," Prime Minister Bruce Golding told a Gleaner Editors' Forum yesterday.

Un-funded warrants

"There is always, from month to month, some un-funded warrants but $8 billion is a reflection of the tightness of the system," added Golding.

The prime minister's statement confirmed a Gleaner report published just over one month ago.

At that time, operators of several businesses told The Gleaner that they had provided goods and services to public-sector entities and had not been paid.

The business operators further complained that they had been unsuccessful in their efforts to get a timeline on when they would get their money.

But while promising that the bills would be paid, government officials pointed to the fact that the administration had already slashed its expenditure plans, spending $18 billion less than it had scheduled in the first four months of this fiscal year.

The spending cut

The majority of that spending cut came last month when the Government paid only critical bills as it spent almost $14 billion less than planned.

This followed preliminary data that showed a revenue shortfall of $10 billion for the first four months of the year.

Not satisfied with the spending cuts already implemented, Golding last week mandated permanent secretaries to further reduce their expenditure budgets by 20 per cent.

Those revised spending plans were to be presented to the prime minister yesterday and will be used to provide guidance to the finance ministry, which is now trying to craft a Supplementary Budget.

The Supplementary Budget is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament next month.