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Chasing after development

Jun 25, 2015 Editorial, Features / Columnists

It has been a few days over a month since the new government took office and already the expectations are so high that one wonders whether people have already reached the conclusion that the government has been there long enough, perhaps as long as the previous government.
New governments are usually given a period of honeymoon but in this case the honeymoon period is obviously going to be very short. And for good reason as could have been ascertained when the results of the May 11, 2015 elections were announced. People broke into spontaneous celebrations akin to the announcement of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
These celebrations spread far afield with the people of Brooklyn holding one of the biggest celebratory parades that the country has ever recorded in the Diaspora. They all said that a blanket has been lifted from Guyana and that real development must begin.
It was the same talk back home. The previous administration said that it was doing everything to take Guyana along and with it, the private sector. There had been studied reports that Guyana was not the best place to do business given the sloth at processing applications.  Further, the investigators found that bribing was commonplace.
For their part, the private sector businesses did the best they could, each trying to defraud the Guyana Revenue Authority by seeking lower taxes. There were those who spoke of cronyism and pointed to certain businesses that seemed to get all the business or contracts, whichever was the case.
These too announced their liberation when the elections results were published. They showed their sense of liberation by beginning one of the largest spontaneous episodes of cleanup in a city that was inundated with garbage. That cleanup is still in progress. In fact, it has spread to other parts of the country.
And while this is going on the government is trying to find money to maintain the development thrust. It is now in a position to review those tasks that the previous administration had undertaken at what was perceived to be higher than usual costs. It was also trying to follow a trail of overspending and of unnatural spending.
It would seem as if the chase after irregularities is taking too much time. For example, the new government is reviewing some of the major projects that were undertaken by the previous administration.  What makes this aspect of governance even more frustrating is the fact that most of what is being sought was questioned in the National Assembly during the Tenth Parliament.
For example, the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport was to be completed at one cost but it now seems that the taxpayers would have been saddled with a bill that would have been US$65 million higher.
But it is the rampant dishonesty that seems to be thwarting any concentrating on other aspects of government. Scarce resources have been deployed to track state assets that have been removed and consigned to personal use.
There are many other things that seem to occupy that attention of the new administration even though there is need for things like job creation, infrastructural development and production. It is retiring the various Boards of Directors and replacing them with people who the government feels are more nationalistic as opposed to being selfish and self-seeking.
There are people who feel that they were denied employment because they were perceived to be opposition elements.  These people feel that their offspring should at least gain consideration for jobs or some of the benefits being shared. These are the grassroots people who spearhead the election movement for their political party.
There must be some action by the government to keep Guyana moving. The public may be happy at the disclosures but the same public would not sit indefinitely waiting for development.

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