The Minister’s rebuttal exposes the wrongdoing behind the rice deal

Sep 06, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Minister Robert Persaud’s letter fails to counter my position that the Venezuela rice deal unfairly benefits one special interest group
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud’s response to my letter actually confirms core contention of my letter. It changes nothing. Minister Persaud stated that the money to pay the millers/farmers comes from the Petro Caribe Account, which retains the proceeds of the sales of oil obtained under the Petro Caribe Agreement.
The Minister stated that instead of directly repaying Venezuela for the oil they supplied under the Petro Caribe account the Guyana Government is “instead using this money to pay rice farmers/millers and then discounting this value from the value owed to Venezuela for oil.”
The Minister confirms that the oil obtained under the Petro Caribe Agreement is sold to the entire Guyanese public. This is exactly the point I am making that the Government is still yet to overcome and refute. Oil obtained from Venezuela is sold to all Guyanese of all ethnicities and in all industries.
Not only to rice farmers or millers. The Guyana Government likely makes a profit from the sale of this oil to all Guyanese. This profit is made from all Guyanese. The Government holds the money from sale of fuel to all Guyanese in an account.
I can understand if rice farmers and millers were the only ones purchasing this oil and the Government decides to reward them. But this is not the case. All Guyanese are buying fuel obtained from Venezuela and likely not at purchase price but at a markup.
Did Minister Persaud and his government ask the entire Guyanese people if it was right to take their money they paid to buy oil from Venezuela and give rice farmers and millers a windfall of 75% above market prices?
Which government of a nation that owes more than US$160 million to a hostile neighbour that maintains a claim to two-thirds of its territory seeks a windfall for a select group when such a payoff could have been negotiated towards reducing the entire outstanding debt to that hostile neighbour?
The fundamental problem with Minister Persaud’s attempt at a rebuttal is that it actually helps to expose the wrongdoing behind this entire deal. It would continue to happen if public-minded Guyanese did not undress it for what it is.
This is money collected from all Guyanese handed over to a specific group of Guyanese. There is nothing that prevents prudent government from collecting any windfall and spending it on the entire nation. Contrary to Mr. Persaud’s contention, I have not created a dismal view of the rice sector. These recent deals do.
Why wouldn’t export revenues for the rice sector grow by 147% when rice farmers and millers are getting fattened by their government in an unfair manner? Why wouldn’t export revenues (I did not say production) increase when the past five years have seen some of the highest commodity prices on the world market?
Minister Persaud, does the export revenues increase by 14.1% (equivalent of US$9.7M) in 2010 over the same period in 2009 have anything to do with an almost US$10 million windfall farmers and millers got in the recent Venezuela rice transfer deal?
Who really were the stakeholders invited to discuss this deal? Did anyone ask the public what they thought of this deal where the funds collected from all Guyanese buying fuel would be used to give a nice Christmas bonus to rice farmers who were already wallowing in what the Minister disclosed as a 147% increase in rice export revenues in the past five years? If the Government had asked me I would have told them exactly what I am saying now.
For heaven’s sake, the rice farmers and millers have seen an average of 29.4% increase in revenues per year for the past five years yet they are still getting fat juicy payouts from Guyanese taxpayers’ hard-earned money going towards paying for fuel.
When is the Government going to send a fuel rebate cheque in the mail of US$13.33 or GY$2, 666.00 to every single 750,000 Guyanese just like rice farmers and millers got a golden US$10 million of that fuel money obtained from all Guyanese? To the Government of Guyana: this is not your money. It is the people’s.
Michael Maxwell

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The Minister’s rebuttal exposes the wrongdoing behind the rice deal

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