Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

As the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares its first bud­get next month, for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert has pre­dict­ed the Gov­ern­ment will not have enough mon­ey to ful­fil its cam­paign promis­es. Al­though he ex­pects a bal­anced bud­get, there will be no re­duc­tion of pub­lic debt or back pay to pub­lic ser­vants, which could run in­to “20 to 30 bil­lion dol­lars”.

Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence fol­low­ing the PNM’s gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing held at the Pleas­antville Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre yes­ter­day, Im­bert said he had heard the Gov­ern­ment will be pre­sent­ing a $15-20 bil­lion deficit bud­get.