It’s a question of money

Mar 26, 2015 Editorial

The government is not happy that former Finance Minister and opposition shadow Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge, has moved to the courts to block the government from spending monies that accrue to this country either by way of loans or as grants.
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon has reminded that Guyana is a developing country that depends on the International Financial Agencies like the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It is also benefitting from loans and grants through bilateral arrangements with India and China.
Indeed, Guyana has been looking increasingly to India and China, two countries that seem willing to help Guyana; India through its drive to link with its people in the Diaspora, and China as it seeks to assert itself as the world financial power with the decline of the United States as the economic giant it once was.
With the international financial institutions there is rigid oversight. There are inspections and monitoring of projects to be undertaken with money from them. With the two major bilateral aid donors it is not so much as supervision because those countries have had the experience of borrowing from the world powers.
Being a developing country, money is never too much and in recent times Guyana has been pursuing money from every available source. It latched on to the Petro Caribe deal because it was getting concessionary loans by not having to pay immediately for whatever oil it took from Venezuela.
China came to these parts with billions of United States dollars on offer for development in the region and Guyana pounced on the opportunity to access some of that money. The government wants to do many things, some of which it dared not contemplate because it simply could not fund those projects. Now the opportunity is there and it wants to leave its mark on the land.
There isn’t too much that the government has to show for its more than two-decade stint in power. There is the Providence National Stadium and not much else by way of new structures. Of course, there is the soon to be commissioned Marriott Hotel and the Berbice River Bridge. The Skeldon Sugar factory is an embarrassment for the kind of money spent on it and given its near inability to produce.
The previous administration headed by the People’s National Congress, against which the government measures itself can boast of the Bank of Guyana, the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, the Corentyne Highway, the West Demerara Highway, the East Demerara Highway the Demerara Harbour Bridge, the University of Guyana and small projects like the secondary and multilateral schools.
Now the government wants to really make its mark. It is talking about a new Demerara Harbour Bridge, a deep water harbor, the Amaila Falls hydroelectric project, a bridge across the Corentyne River, a heightened communication experience and a country that is technologically savvy.
To undertake these things calls for money and China seems more than willing to provide the funding. But there is a fly in the ointment in the person of Carl Greenidge, a former Finance Minister. He says that he does not trust the government with money that the people have to repay simply because of all the talk of corruption.
He says that he has also seen the wealth that people suddenly acquired soon after they became holders of public office. He therefore wants to monitor the spending of the money coming into Guyana. But the government sees this as a humbug. Dr. Luncheon says that there is nothing in the constitution to stop the government from spending money. And he has threatened that Greenidge would have to go to the courts a lot.
Indeed, the law allows a government to perform its duties until it leaves office. But there is the risk that contracts entered into the government could be ignored by the new government. For this reason, there is often a moratorium on new projects ahead of elections.
But since it is not illegal for the government to spend money it acquires or borrows, then Greenidge’s attempt to bell the cat may be so difficult.

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