APNU column…Forget the numbers! What about the people?

Apr 08, 2012 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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by Brigadier David Granger, Leader of the Opposition

Minister of Finance Minister Dr.  Ashni Kumar Singh presented the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration’s $192.8 billion budget to the National Assembly on Friday 30th March. The Budget boasted a promising slogan –Remaining on course, united in purpose, prosperity for all. Its main proposals, however, have been hugely disappointing to the nation at large.
The Budget detailed a long list of large amounts of money to be collected and spent. It reminded the nation, as every Budget does every year, that it was the “largest in the history of the country.”  What the people saw beyond the big numbers of dollars, however, was a grim future where their hopes for a good life are growing dimmer and dimmer.
The people did not see a budget that offered new options for escaping from poverty, new opportunities for pursuing higher education and new prospects for jobs. In short, they felt that they will be worse off, rather than better off, under Budget 2012.
The National Assembly was told that the Budget was guided by the vision embodied in the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s election manifesto. It painted a glowing image of a “Guyana that is a land of opportunity and prosperity, where every citizen can realize their personal and professional aspirations; where more of our people chose to remain to make a rewarding living and where more of our diaspora find it worthwhile to return, whether for gainful employment or restful retirement; where investors prefer to do business; where productive activity continues to grow and where productivity and competitiveness improve steadily; where high quality social and other services  are readily and efficiently available and where all of our actions and decisions are consistent with the long-term sustainability of the natural environment.” For the majority of Guyanese, that rosy image, however, was a mirage.
The proposals in the PPP/C’s 2012 Budget fell far short of the vision of the PPP/C’s 2011 Manifesto. There was no shortage of bad news.  The Budget admitted that, at the end of 2011, public enterprises had incurred an overall deficit of G$6.6 billion compared to $2.8 billion in 2010. The national external debt stock soared by 16 per cent to US$1.2 billion and its domestic debt stock rose by 2.2 per cent to US$ 728 million in 2011.
It acknowledged that the important sugar industry had under-performed and it blamed low labour turnout and the ‘need for greater managerial effectiveness,’ among other things, for the setback.
The Budget proposed the transfer of $6 billion from the Central Government to the Guyana Power & Light Company and another transfer of G$4 billion to the Guyana Sugar Corporation. These two struggling state corporations have been languishing as liabilities under PPP/C mismanagement for years.
Dishing out billions to ailing state enterprises was bad enough. Much worse was the stingy treatment of workers and the poor. The Budget signalled that no substantial new resources would be directed to the poorest and the most vulnerable people in the country. It neglected to make even the slightest reference to the administration’s own Poverty Reduction Strategy.
The most likely consequence will be that the poor will remain poor. They will be further marginalised and prevented from participating in the country’s economic development.
The Budget ignored the big issue of poverty – visible in the growing horde of addicts, alcoholics, beggars, destitute people and street children. It ignored the need to strengthen the administrative infrastructure of hinterland regions from which mineral wealth – especially bauxite, diamonds, gold and manganese – is earned.
The Budget did not indicate how jobs would be found for the thousands of young school-leavers who enter the labour market each year. It ignored the need to protect our fishermen, miners and other working people by providing funds to equip the Police Force with the aviation, maritime and land transport assets it needs to curb piracy in our coastal waters and banditry in the hinterland.
The Budget’s weakness is that it is a ‘boardroom’ contrivance that is badly out-of-touch with the reality of the actual needs of the people and the conditions in the country. Consequently, it did not even try to encourage the people themselves – through alleviating poverty, reducing the burdensome cost-of-living, increasing jobs, improving education and enhancing human safety – to participate in the plan. The Budget’s ten big failures were:
1.    Failure to introduce  meaningful measures to reduce poverty;
2.    Failure to lower the cost-of-living for the majority of the population;
3.    Failure to reduce the burdensome value-added tax (VAT);
4.    Failure to provide sufficient opportunities for jobs;
5.    Failure to increase salaries for nurses, teachers and other public servants;
6.    Failure to increase public assistance and old age pensions significantly;
7.    Failure to provide adequate funding for the University and the College of Education;
8.    Failure to provide adequate funding to enable the Police Force to counter crime;
9.    Failure to provide adequate funding for the foreign missions to promote local exports and investment opportunities; and,
10.    Failure to provide adequate funding to upgrade regional administrative centres – especially Bartica, Lethem, Mabaruma, Mahdia, Rosignol and Vreed-en-Hoop – to township status.
The PPP/C’s proposed Budget must be amended if the people are to see real progress. There is no way the country can move forward with such a budget that so recklessly disregards the most important factor in national development – the people!

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