Jagdeo lambastes Govt. on GuySuCo

Jan 19, 2017 News

By Brushell Blackman
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo believes that the government’s justification of a lack of fiscal space to justify how it is currently dealing with GuySuCo is one that was not properly thought out and very fallacious.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo

He was at the time delivering the feature address at the opening of the 5th Regional Conference of the International Union of Food, Agriculture, Hotel, Restaurants, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Union (IUF) conference at Grand Coastal Hotel, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara yesterday.
In his remarks, Jagdeo said that a layman listening to Finance Minister Winston Jordan putting forward this argument would believe that there isn’t another option. However the Opposition Leader disagrees with that notion. He said that what the government has failed to tell the populace is that there are choices when dealing with this much talked about fiscal space.
“There are several choices that can be taken in the fiscal space, but government chose the wrong ones.”
Jagdeo referred to his tenure as President, saying that they were numerous times he was at odds with the union; however his approach was different. Notwithstanding this, the former president said that the union and his government were still able to arrive at amicable solutions and kept the sugar industry afloat.
Heaping criticism on the ruling administration, Jagdeo said that there has been two consecutive years of wage freeze under the current administration; something that has not happened in the past 30 years. He drew attention to another first, saying that the annual production incentive was taken away from the sugar industry, something that had not been done in 64 years. And yet again the argument of lack of fiscal space was used to justify the aforementioned decision, Jagdeo emphasised.
A visibly enthused Jagdeo said that there is the other side to the fiscal space argument which the government has failed to highlight.
“This administration has their priorities mixed up and that’s why they are failing the industry.”
He questioned how there could be no fiscal space yet the government has given a $77B debt write-off to DDL. This, he opined, could have been plugged into the industry without becoming burdensome to the treasury. He explained that $8M a year was needed to keep the Wales estate open and save 17,000 jobs.
Further he stated that the Gold Board has lost $28B in the two years this government has taken office – more money that could have been used to aid the sugar industry. Jagdeo said it all comes back to making the right choices and opined that had this been done, all the estates would have been open today. “How can there be no fiscal space but the current Ministers have gotten a wage increase 15 times more than the average worker?”
The Opposition Leader was not finished there; he asked what justifies building a stadium (Durban Park) and using it once and then ‘parking it’. All these wasted funds, according to Jagdeo, could have been better spent.
He admitted that governments would not be able to do all that is asked of them, but good choices ought to have been made, something he believes that has eluded the current David Granger-led government. He said that they (Government) cannot continue to hide behind the lack of fiscal space argument, since the truth is being exposed daily.
The opposition and government continue to be at loggerheads after the subsidy was stopped. The government explained that such an undertaking was not feasible and it was bleeding the public purse.

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