Latest update January 20th, 2025 3:24 AM
Former PPP Minister plays politics with the truth
Dear Editor,
I must commend former Minister Irfaan Ali for a vociferous and energetic presentation in the 2016 Budget Debate. As the opening batsman, he did well for his party. However, it would be irresponsible for me not to point out that he was stingy with the truth on the non-performing loans held by the licensed financial institutions.
He chooses to ignore the critical fact that one cannot assess the level of non-performing loans without comparing it to the total debt portfolio. When one measures the asset quality in the banking system one reverts to the ratio of total non-performing loans to total loans. The statistics below, sources from the Bank of Guyana reports, will show that the asset quality of the local banking sector started to deteriorate in 2014. In 2014, the level of non-performing loans deteriorated by 2.3 percent points to close with BAD DEBT worth G$18.1 billion compared to G$11.3 billion in 2013.
ASSET QUALITY OF THE LOANS IN THE BANKING SYSTEM
If my memory serves me well, the President of Guyana in 2014 was none other than the minority President Donald Ramotar from the PPP. What cannot be disputed is that under the term of former majority President Bharat Jagdeo, between the years 2007 to 2011, the state of the banking sector was rock solid.
But this deterioration in the loan portfolio in the banking system did not start under the majority President David Granger. The truth remains – the deterioration in the banking system started in the last days of the minority Ramotar administration and was exacerbated during the first six months of the majority Granger Coalition administration.
The Bank of Guyana (BoG) for years now had a robust compliance tracking system of the licensed financial institutions. They use a menu of solid financial soundness indicators that adheres to the international standards established by the BASLE Committee, the global standard setter for banking supervision. What is very clear, the BoG has done its job by effectively monitoring the system for any violation of the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) and notified the political directorate accordingly. With such information, the political directorate ought to have used 2014, 2015 and 2016 Budgets to roll out measures to enhance business confidence and to stimulate a more progressive investment climate.
Sase Singh
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