It will take more than a 100-day ‘domestic war’ plan to clean up this mess

Jul 23, 2015 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
At Stabroek Market square on Thursday, April 30, last, APNU+AFC launched its manifesto, which contained a six-point 100-day ‘domestic war’ plan as part of a five-year national strategy. The six points were: 1) war against crime, 2) war against corruption, 3) war against cronyism, 4) war against poverty, 5) war against disunity and 6) war against dictatorship.
That was assuming it won the May 11 elections, which it eventually did. But along the campaign trail, it hammered home rosy promises like increasing salaries for public servants, increasing pensioners’ income, reducing VAT, lowering the Berbice Bridge toll, constitutional reform, and so on.
I cautioned very early on in a few blogs against it making nebulous financial-related promises or pushing to have the PPP enter Parliament to support the coalition regime’s endeavours, until it knew what exactly it inherited in terms of government’s finances and the national economy. Audits were the way to go.
For the PPP regime, it was never a case, as with other law-abiding democracies, of adhering to laws or government operating systems, including the twin cardinal principles of accountability and responsibility, so any attempt by this new regime to obtain information, identify problems areas and take remedial action was bound to present a unique set of problems.
One has to be a miracle worker, therefore, to undo in 100 days, and even on an elementary level, what took over two decades to meticulously establish as a politically-inspired crime syndicate in government, because while government corruption pre-dated the PPP’s advent to office in 1992, it simply spiraled out of control, and in what appeared to be a top-down orchestrated manner after 1999.
In fact, some have argued that the PPPs knowledge of the PNC’s past corruption in government was deliberately exploited to allow corruption to explode exponentially under the PPP, and were the PNC to cry foul then the PPP had the ‘goods’ on certain PNC players.
But in a country where government is the biggest employer and has exerted tremendous influence over the private sector, cronyism is going to be the toughest war to fight, because it is not limited to government. And while it will take more than 100 days to even start making a noticeable dent in crime and corruption in both the government and communities, let alone going after poverty, disunity and dictatorship, it literally had to take mounting public pressure, after two recent high-profile crimes on the West Coast and East Coast Demerara, for this government to come up with a five-point crime fighting strategy. It also did not help this new regime that its ‘domestic war’ agenda was compounded by external saber-rattling from Venezuela.
Still, after two-thirds the journey in its 100-day plan drive, some started questioning whether the plan was achievable, given the government has expended a tremendous amount of time trying to get a firm grasp on state agencies and their financial affairs, which meant the removal of certain key players who served as political appointees to help the previous regime execute its corrupt agenda.
To the corrupt PPP and its minions, these removals are being dubbed a ‘witch-hunting’ exercise that targets PPP supporters and especially Indian Guyanese, but to others, this is the price to pay when persons are political appointees in public sector professional jobs, and this is what also happens to professionals who compromise their professionalism at the altar of political expediency to either feed at the trough of corruption or hang on to their jobs.
One of those who offered a balanced perspective on the status of the 100-day plan was former House Speaker, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, (‘Things to do on your honeymoon’, SN July 19). He basically suggested, among other things, that the coalition regime actively considers allowing Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo to spearhead certain agenda items in the homestretch towards the 100-day mark.
But after all we have discovered over the last nine weeks, we should temper our expectations about government achieving all six of the points enumerated at the top, because reality says the coalition group inherited a government that was built on systemic corruption, deceit and a dual economy.
The PetroCaribe Fund is broke. Venezuela told the PPP regime to look for new rice markets, but it took the new regime to break the news to Guyanese. The rice industry is now in trouble as government has to find hundreds of millions of dollars to pay rice farmers. The sugar industry has long been in trouble, starting with the US$200M Skeldon Modernization debacle and billions in subventions. While gold prices were plummeting the PPP government tapped into the Consolidated Fund to pay inordinately high prices to miners.
Bauxite, controlled by the Russians and Chinese, is yet to be assessed to determine its true contributions to the nation’s coffers. GPL, which has been bailed out many times and benefited from Chinese loans, is yet to be audited. Billions were borrowed from the Chinese for several projects, including CJIA. Baishanlin wants more trees. This new government is trying to negotiate a settlement after a 2014 CCJ ruling against the PPP regime. Unnamed bank accounts with millions of dollars had to be closed. The US$32M Fibre-Optic Cable project was a costly failure. The US$58M unfinished Marriott awaits buyers as government says it is not in the hotel business.
And as we go down the list of problem areas this new regime struggles to come to grips with, thereby making the 100-day plan difficult to execute, we find ourselves trying to figure out how the economy, which has been doing swell before May 11, suddenly started slowing down, according to a few reports, including a survey that said 9 out of 10 business owners feel this way.
Was the PPP practicing ‘zombie economics’ with a formal economy that was deliberately undergirded by an informal economy fueled by the illicit narcotics industry? Do many businesses, whether backed by illicit proceeds or those run by the Chinese, feel threatened by the new regime, which plans to play by the rules and demand such businesses finally file taxes? Uh-oh, is the slow down deliberate?
From all appearances, it will take more than a 100-day ‘domestic war’ plan to make significant headway in cleaning up this mess.
Emile Mervin

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