Enthusiasm for our ruling coalition will depend on effective managing of the economy

May 31, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
I have little doubt that President Granger is fully aware that the wave of enthusiasm for our ruling coalition can easily collapse if he and his government flop in the management of our economy and in keeping economic growth rates at the high end.
It would not be enough for the coalition to trumpet its new found “managerialist” philosophy even if it succeeds in becoming a model of financial rectitude.
During the election battle the coalition made no bones about its readiness to become better stewards of the public purse. On top of this, the coalition made it its mission to ensure the public gets top value for every cent the government spends in our name. While imposing sound financial management practices in the operation of the public purse is commendable, we will surely not be richer as a nation even as our battery of accountants on the government payroll counts every cent that comes in and meticulously record how it has been used. If we are stupid enough to put great book-keeping ahead of our capacity to make and sell things to people around the world, then the result is that we will be doing nothing more than taking ourselves to the cleaners. It is only when we make our economy bigger that we put more money in the pockets of our workers, businessmen and of course our politicians as well.
President Granger’s great fault would be if he and his government simply assume that the high growth rates we have enjoyed in the most recent years will automatically continue as if our economy is on auto-pilot.
The controversies in which the PPP/C was embroiled were appalling, but its hands-on management of the investment side of our economy kept economic growth steady and strong. The coalition has no choice but to embrace this positive outcome and work harder at it. It will have to approach the job as deliberately as a contractor does, expanding the foundation and performing the onerous task of adding new floors to the building.
We can only hope that someone of stature in the coalition government declares publicly and unambiguously in the near future what strategies the government has in mind to help sustain economic momentum going forward.
It is unfortunate that textbook economics does not teach about the optimum size of government, but with the number of ministers reaching over two dozen or more, and with inward investment so critical, the president can count on a number of hands to help him move his investment plan forward.
The adolescent idea that Guyana can operate independently of substantial investments from wealthy foreigners and well oiled international corporations should not be revived.
The modernization we need in all areas of our society is deserving of all the help we can get.
The problem associated with economic growth is that our policy makers do not cite it often enough as the necessary backbone of any social intervention that the coalition proposes.
In a growing economy more tax revenue gets stashed into the public treasury and as the old saying goes the government can then smile broadly all the way to the bank.
Yet one of our biggest priorities has to do with our unemployment concerns. If unemployment is to be reduced responsibly then it is President Granger’s job and that of his government to combine the benefit of a more robust economy with a sizeable expansion in our facilities that offer affordable vocational and technical training.
A growing economy creates jobs and those with ready-to-work skills are more likely to find them. The job seeker trained in say masonry, upholstery or QuickBooks accounting will not be languishing on the unemployment line for too long. I have long found the question of unemployment to be less severe if our government has the good sense to preside over an educational system that turns out people with the right mix of skills that the economy needs. There is no reason to believe that we cannot run an educational system as good as what we find anywhere else.
Any haste on the part of the coalition to add new jobs by bloating the government sector with hundreds or thousands of new staff, doing work that many of us will consider inconsequential will wreak havoc once again with our public finance. The coalition should be put on notice that it has no room for error. More importantly, it is only by results that we will know if the change of government has been pointless.
Wesley Hicken

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