ANOTHER PIPE DREAM

Dec 07, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

I often do not like basking in the glory of saying, “I had told you so.” I do not like to do so, especially when it concerns failed expectations.

Today, however, as the nation is being presented with another pipe dream by the Jagdeo administration, I have to remind readers that I had forewarned them.

I recall the hype with which the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) was launched. I remember how the public was regaled with stories as to how this G$2B programme would transform Linden.

I recall writing then that there was no way this was going to happen. I insisted then, as I do now, that what Linden needed was either the revival of the bauxite industry or another industry of that magnitude.

No amount of economic diversification can assist a town that historically revolved around a major industry. And no G$2B European Union programme could do what it would take billions in investments to achieve.

I predicted then that the main beneficiaries of LEAP would have been the consultants. I have asked the media to ascertain just what percentage of the actual project funds has been used for paying consultants.

I have always been highly critical of a great many foreign–funded projects for sustaining a thriving consultant industry in Guyana.

I had also promised to discuss my views of the Millennium Challenge Account. I will do so eventually, but for now I will only say that I believe that the main beneficiaries of that spending will also be foreign–based consultants who will come and over-diagnose Guyana’s tax administration system.

And I am now predicting that the main beneficiaries of any climate change initiative of the Jagdeo administration are going to be consultants, in this case, locally–based consultants.

I see this initiative being pushed by President Jagdeo to have the international community reward Guyana for keeping its standing forests intact as a pipe dream.

I for one do not believe that Guyana is going to earn anywhere near the US$580M that it is said we can earn from this initiative. I am betting that we will not get anywhere near US$80M, much less the hundreds more that is said to be possible.

I have criticized this plan on ethical grounds. It shifts the responsibility for the protection of the environment from the main polluters, the developed world, to the developing world. And what is being dabbled in the face of poor countries are rewards and funding.

It is this funding, along with encouragement from the global environmental lobby, which is driving the ruling administration to believe that it can gain income greater than our gross national product.

It is all a pipe dream, but a dream that will allow environmental consultants to earn a great deal of money while at the same time allowing the donor community, which also needs to spend in order to survive, to have another initiative to pump proceeds into.

I was not surprised when I learnt about this initiative. I expected it. Guyana has long developed a mendicant relationship with the international financial community and tailors its developmental programmes so that it can benefit from the availability of new sources of international funding. The Guyana Threshold Account under the Millennium Challenge Account is living proof of this.

The funds were there and Guyana applied for the funds and instead of putting it to better use, devoted it to improving the GRA and fiduciary oversight.

I will go further and say that our national agenda is being set by the global financial community. I was not surprised that Guyana leapfrogged onto the climate change agenda at the same time that the World Bank deemed it a developmental issue.

I will not be surprised if Guyana is eyeing funding under the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds, of which some US$6B were approved in July of this year.

I will not be surprised if the so-called firewall that we are building around Guyana to mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis involves tapping into the increased billions that the World Bank is pouring into developing countries over the next few years to cater for increased financial demands.

This is what passes for development in Guyana. The international community responds to a crisis by providing funds, Guyana begins to salivate upon learning that funding is available, and we have a new concern born in Guyana.

The only beneficiaries of these funds are the consultants. The poor people of this country are not going to benefit from any climate change initiative. That is all a pipe dream.

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