Minister Gaskin is wrong on this one!

Sep 30, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I respect Dominic Gaskin very much since I think as Treasurer of the AFC, he ticked all the right boxes in running a tight financial ship in the 2011 Elections Campaign unlike a totally clueless General Secretary in David Patterson. He was extremely consistent in his demand for full accountability from all the field staff then. So in 2011, I was proud of his work. But clearly, as Minister of Business, Dominic has lost his way.
I speak specifically to the fact that he proudly declared in the local press that “no new investment proposal has yet borne fruits” after 16 months under his watch. To add to that pitiable performance, he then went on to cement why this is the case by saying that “due to the contractual agreement between the Government and CHEC (the Airport Contractor), the State cannot prevent the contracting firm from importing 300,000 tons of stones.” I say this is too much MALARKEY from Minister Gaskin!
Here is another situation where the Granger administration is clearly out to lunch on the big developmental issues. So the children of Guyanese taxpayers will be asked to pay back a loan to China in the future, but that same loan is working to create many new jobs in Suriname rather than Guyana, in an industry where we have core competence locally. Albeit, Minister Gaskin is making these statements in an environment where the Granger administration has not delivered on its promise to create new jobs for the young people.
When will this national burden subside where we continue to create too few new jobs all because of the overwhelming occurrences of deformity in strategic thinking in the public service? We compound this mess, we continue to receive some terrible and reckless public statements from most of our Ministers with very few exception.
Can you imagine that the biggest contract that is being implemented under Team Granger that was incubated under Team Jagdeo, is working to serve the State of Suriname rather than the State of Guyana and we talk about territorial integrity? This STONE SCAM is one of the greatest giveaways of our wealth. This decision to sign such a weak contract for the people will destroy our internal wealth creation capacity by lifting all of that potential into a foreign land?
This is nothing but developmental disparity; we pay and Suriname plays. What the Granger administration has done with this Airport Contract was to have kept TEAM GUYANA on the bench as spectators to the game, when by right we have the talent, the material and the ability to produce every stone need for our national airport.
This now raises the important consideration; was there any financial kickbacks to orchestrate this anti-national and anti-patriotic move to disregard the Guyanese stone industry and its workers? I do not believe the legal and procurement thinkers in the Ministry of Public Infrastructure are that stupid to allow this state of affair to happen naturally. Thus I am considering the position that there may be a revolting situation of financial skullduggery on this project. Have the contractors gotten to the key players? This situation demands a forensic audit and even a project audit from the Office of the Auditor General since “something may be rotten in the state of Denmark”, if I am permitted to paraphrase the line spoken by Marcellus in the Shakespearean masterpiece Hamlet.
Well sorry Minister Gaskin, you are wrong. This contract is a frontal attack on the Guyanese private sector. But because of this adulterated legal agreement that was modified under the Granger administration, the people in the quarry and construction sector will clearly not be your ally. If one interrogates the two premier government reports at this time, (the Minister of Finance Mid-Term 2016 Report and the Bank of Guyana 2016 Half Year Report) one can find evidence of the fallout from terrible decisions like this one to procure stones from a foreign country. In the first half of 2016, activities in the construction sector declined by 8% and this was attributed to (in these government reports) “weaker investments in private construction”.
Who would not hide their money in such an environment of great economic uncertainty?
One can also look at the credit disbursed from the local banking sector to the construction sector, which is a good proxy to assess the investment appetite of the local quarrying and contracting community. Credit to the construction sector declined by 27% during January – June 2016. Now with all this information at the disposal of President Granger, let us see what he will do? Ignore the reality and throw the Guyanese people under the bus by allowing the status quo to continue or take Presidential action to bring economic and social justice to the Guyanese people.
Sase Singh

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