WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM?

Oct 19, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

On Monday last, we examined one reason given by the government for its contention that it inherited a disastrous financial landscape. It was suggested that this was an excuse offered by the government to justify its pitiful wages offer to public servants.
The argument made by the government that it had to honour the debts of the sugar company, plus pay it 23 billion dollars in subventions, cannot be entirely dismissed as fanciful. The government can rightly claim that had it not had to pay that subvention, then more money would have been available to do other things.
Or to squander! And the government did, in relation to the Jubilee activities. The government did have to bailout GuySuCo. But it also bailed out City Hall. It also bailed out the Durban Park project.
The government also failed to announce how much money it spent to host the Caricom Heads of Government Summit, including the road works which it was forced to do. So perhaps more money would have meant more spending on things which bring no return to the economy.
The government continues to bailout other sectors. It will soon bailout the Veterans, giving them additional benefits, even though most of them do enjoy their statutory benefits. Other sectors of the workforce are going to be lining up for a review of their benefits, since if the benefits of the veterans can be reviewed, then the benefits paid to retired policemen and women should also be reviewed.
The government has also not factored into its excuse the fact that despite falling short of revenue projections, it did enjoy an increase in revenues. So it is not a case in which revenues are contracting at the same time that it has to bail out the sugar company.
The government’s official excuse for not paying public servants a higher wage was not because it did not have money or because it has to bail out the sugar industry. This is the latest excuse. The original position of the government was that it cannot sustain a higher wage increase, not that it cannot find the money.
The fault for not paying public servants a higher increase cannot be laid at the feet of GuySuCo.
The government has been toying with the Guyana Public Service Union. It did initially threaten to pay the increase even if the union disagreed with it. This constitutes a breach of collective bargaining.
There was a retreat from this position, with the government then suggesting that negotiations were not over. This was after the union said it would prefer to go to conciliation and then arbitration.
The government knows that if the matter goes to arbitration, it can lose just as how the PPPC lost in 1999. It knows that it would have to pay a high wage bill.
It does not want to pay that bill this year or next year or the following year. It will do so in 2020 when elections are due. It will then pay the big increase to public servants, just as the PPPC was fond of doing.
People are not going to be fooled by what is taking place. Public servants have already begun to ask how it is that the government, which has to bail out so many industries, had the money to pay multibillion-dollar payouts as out-of-court settlements. Yet it could not find the sums to up its wages offer to public servants.

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