Presidential Candidates pledge level playing field for Private Sector

Nov 15, 2011 News

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The four Presidential Candidates contesting this year’s General Elections have acknowledged that there needs to be legislation that would guarantee a level playing field in the business sector.
The candidates were addressing concerns from an aspiring businessman at last Thursday’s discourse with students of the University of Guyana.
There are concerns that since the political parties receive support from businesses for their election campaigns, favours will have to be returned if a particular party is elected to office, while the reverse could see businesses being victimized one way or the other.
One questioner had asked what mechanism would be put in place to enforce fair competition.
The Candidates all agreed that the situation is not ideal when it comes to the award of Government contracts, and concessions for businesses.

However, they have all outlined plans to address the situation to make it equitable and allow for a more vibrant private sector free from Government favouritism.
A Partnership for National Unity’s David Granger told the UG audience that businessmen throughout Guyana whose support spread all across the political divide have informed him that their most immediate desire is a level playing field.
“They don’t want to see one particular contractor, one particular supplier being given unfair advantage. They want to see an efficient procurement commission; they want to see fair enforcement of the laws of Guyana, they want to ensure that contraband trade is brought to an end,” Granger explained.
He said that over the last 19 years, these have been the fault of the People’s Progressive Party Civic Government, because instead of capitalism, the government has been engaging in a system of cronyism.
According to the APNU Presidential Candidate, a look at the hinterland and rural communities will reveal that repeatedly, one contractor is given contracts despite failing in the previous one.
“You see businessmen selling commodities at prices much lower than others, and then you discover that that businessman is a smuggler. If you are to have a level playing field, you need to stamp out all forms of illegality,” Granger explained.
Donald Ramotar of the ruling PPP/C said that Guyana is getting to the point where fairness and equity in business will be universal throughout the country.
To achieve this goal, Ramotar said that the PPP/C government has removed the discretion in the award of contracts and other facilitation from the purview of government officials and are now enshrined into laws.
“Our Cabinet is probably the only Cabinet in the world that does not allocate jobs. All they have is a non-objection process. And once they object, it has to go back to the Central Tender Board to consider the position of their objection,” Ramotar explained.
He suggested that in most cases those who are awarded contracts were given them in keeping with the provisions of the legal requirements.
“If someone wins a bid fairly, how can you not allocate jobs to them? You will be breaking the law if you don’t do that,” Ramotar said.
He added that should the PPP/C be returned to office, it will make more credit available to businesses, which will be a continuation of what the party has already been doing.
“In 1992, only seven billion dollars was loaned to the Private Sector; today $112B is available to the Private Sector for developing their business,” the aspiring president said.
Khemraj Ramjattan of the Alliance For Change told the audience that his party will ensure that there are fair competition laws, which are absent at the moment.
He said that there needs to be a reduction of certain taxes and he promised a state development bank that could capitalize budding businesses since, at present, the lending rates at the commercial banks are prohibitive for certain businesses.
“We also have to have what is called an independent tender board, not the tender board that is made up of politicos that today only give the jobs to the boys,” Ramjattan said.
According to the AFC Presidential Candidate, the entire tender process needs to be open up to much more scrutiny.
“So if you’re a businessman having a complaint made that you are not getting your just due in relation to your business, there must be a facility where that complaint can be lodged.”
Ramjattan said that one such facility is the Ethnic Relations Commission, which however has failed miserably.
“But that is Juan Edghill, who apparently is closer to Jesus Christ’s thinking than how a businessman thinks,” he added.
According to Ramjattan, the main thing is changing the culture in the way business is done in Guyana.
He said that Guyanese have to understand that fairness comes from the heart.
“It is not gonna be something that can be statutised; it gotta come from your heart. You know what is right from wrong. And those people, when they know that, they will understand that you have been cheated, you have been marginalized and discriminated,” the AFC Presidential Candidate told the University of Guyana students.
The United Force’s Peter Persaud, in explaining his party’s position on the matter, said that the TUF continues to believe firmly in the free enterprise capitalist system and assured that if they are elected to office they will ensure that all businessmen are treated evenly and fairly, erasing all bottlenecks so that the Private Sector can become the engine of growth in Guyana.

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