PPP Government left a positive balance sheet

Mar 28, 2017 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
The evidence is everywhere, both PPP and APNU+AFC supporters are suffering alike. But not surprising, some hard-core APNU+AFC supporters who know the government is lying to them about the so-called “good life’, are still willing to believe without evidence, that our former President, the Hon. Bharrat Jagdeo and his former administration, are a bunch of thieves and corrupt politicians.
Over the years there have been numerous reports, mostly in the pages of Kaieteur News, accusing the government of corruption. Parroting these allegations, the joint APNU+AFC while in opposition, demanded transparency and accountability from the PPP/C government. Then in September 2012, in an effort to disprove these allegations, the Donald Ramotar Administration took the bold initiative to sponsor a series of 7 live debates on national TV – NCN.
The APNU, whose shadow Minister of Finance Carl Greenidge, presided over the worst economic disaster in the history of Guyana, and whose policies helped to bankrupt the Guyana economy when he served as Finance Minister under the PNC, attended the first debate and boycotted the rest. The AFC attended all, but failed to produce any documented evidence that would link the Jagdeo or Ramotar Administrations to corruption.
Not even the outspoken Christopher Ram whom I have tremendous respect for, was able to produce one shred of evidence to support the opposition’s claim of corruption against the government. Yet the allegations continued, and featured as the main platform of the APNU+AFC coalition on the campaign trail during the 2015 general election. The repeated lies of PPP corruption finally paid off for them. But now that they’re in government and have all the accounting documents at their disposal, where’s the evidence?
Only recently and without evidence, the Head of SOCU, Dr. Clive Thomas alleged that the PPP stole $305 billion a year during their administration. Yet the government refused to support the PPP/C motion in Parliament to make public the tax declaration and Integrity Commission’s submissions of current and former politicians for the past 10 years. Further, although they have alleged that PPP officials stashed away billions of dollars abroad, they have refused the repeated call by the Leader of the Opposition for the government to hire a firm specialized in tracking hidden assets.
Mr Editor, I’m confident that some of your readers never thought that they could ever own a house-lot, a home, a car or mini-bus in their lifetime, but are now enjoying the fruits of successive PPP/C administrations that made it possible for them to do so. These necessities were only a dream for most Guyanese before the PPP took office in 1992. Because of the PPP, the landscape of the Guyana coastline was transformed to reflect the progress the country enjoyed then. Infrastructural and economic development can be seen nationwide, and Guyanese were enjoying the good life.
Foreign exchange was abundant and through good governance and a growing, stable economy, commercial banks were all too willing to give mortgages to new and existing homeowners, and loans to buy vehicles. Development was so commonplace that most Guyanese took them for granted: New schools; a new Berbice River Bridge; new roads and bridges; new hospitals and health centres with ambulances and modern medical equipment; a new Police Training Centre; new police vehicles and modern technology to fight crime; a new forensic lab; a new cricket stadium and other sports facilities: incentives given to the Private Sector for job creation; and a brand new Marriott Hotel that the APNU+AFC once opposed but now use as their own personal playground.
Sure the PPP/C government faced serious problems with a rising crime rate and poor student grades at CXC in Maths and English to name a few, but Guyana was able to accomplish what perhaps no other nation has been able to achieve given the deplorable economic state of the country that former Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge and the PNC/APNU left in 1992.
The 1992 World Bank Report paints a dismal picture of Guyana’s economic woes under the People’s National Congress – PNC government of Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte. According to this report, published by the highly credible and internationally respected body – The World Bank on Guyana during the rule of the PNC, “The average decline in real wages and living standards led to a major migration of talented Guyanese to jobs abroad… In 1990, strikes and power shortages produced decline in the GDP of 3.2%, and a rate inflation of 65%. Large stocks of deposits in the banking system, the removal of price controls, and an overall lack of confidence in the economy, led to an increase in the velocity of money and high rate of inflation.”
According to an affidavit signed for the Green Mining Company Arbitration, the former Finance Minister under the PNC government, Carl Greenidge himself admitted that Guyana’s debt under the PNC was over 900% of GDP, and the servicing of that debt, took 153% of government revenue. So this is not something I’m making up here.
The report continues, “Most public sector infrastructure necessary to support the private sector has deteriorated to the point of non-existence. Power and water supplies are so erratic that many large private sector firms have invested in their own generators and water sources. The road system has deteriorated particularly critical farm-to-market feeder roads. The seawall system which protects the most productive agricultural land has been breached in several places.”(Source:1992 World Bank Report).
Harry Gill, MP – PPP

---

---