The minister’s presentation shows that although the people had to tighten their belts, the loans were not paid off. One could talk about a rosy picture but the numbers clearly paint a picture that shows that the previous administration did not leave behind any stability and that the new administration in fact inherited a huge structural budget deficit without any short-term relief. Despite support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), loans and the huge contributions from the State Oil Company  (Staatsolie), the previous administration has left behind a monthly deficit of SRD 425 million. The previous administration took strict austerity measures to reduce expenditures, scrapped state subsidies,  implemented open market operations (OMOs) and gave a 25% raise to state employees but still left behind a huge financial problems for the next administration. For the past 5 years the previous administration was constantly busy rearranging the nation’s debts. The financial plan for 2024 confirms that the bilateral and commercial creditors were not paid. The previous administration’s solution was to simply delay paying off the debts which have amounted to $440 million in total. Half of this debt consists of interest rates and other costs. The most recent 

IMF Article IV report 2024 confirms that the Value Recovery Instrument

(VRI) of Oppenheimer has risen to  a staggering loan of $ 787 million. Simply put one could claim that one implemented a good policy but the fact remains that one simply did not pay off any debts. Analists pointed out that “the numbers that were presented by Raghoebarsing are shocking.”

A source from the Ministry of Finance and Planning labeled it as “administrative chaos without precedent.”He explained that contracts were signed without any legal mandate, reserve funds were selected and some financing posts were fabricated. “The treasury is empty but the financial obligations are sky high,” said the source who wants to remain anonymous out of fear for repercussions. The Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS) has confirmed that in the past couple of years many national and international organizations have issued a warning in response to the uncontrolled production of money and the liquidity issues. It would seem that there also was a serious lack of monitoring on the state finances and state companies. Several state entities suffered huge financial losses these past couple of years but no action was taken to get them out of the red figures. There are clear signs of nepotism policies, inexplanable bonuses and the systematic disappearance of state funds via shady constructions. As of 2021 the General   Audit Office has not been able to give any clear explanations regarding the income of the Republic of Suriname which is in fact a serious problem in the nation’s checks and balances.

The new administration which came into office on July 16th clearly faces a heavy task.  In the next couple of months it will be ome evident if the new leaders have the will and the political courage to get Suriname's economy out of the financial twister and back on track. One thing remains clear and that is that there is no room for errors.