Under the PPP growth was driven by the illegal economy

Apr 10, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Many of the investors under the PPP/C promised jobs but delivered few. Baishanlin promised 10,000 jobs. The Marriott was built by 300 Chinese nationals. Vaitarna Holdings Private Inc. promised to create several hundred jobs for the large acreage of lands they were given. Amaila Falls promised jobs but the plan was to bring 2000 Chinese workers as the US$500 million loan was from the China Development Bank. The jobs the PPP/C were creating; often through crooked deals, were not for Guyanese youth to be employed.
So, under the PPP/C, there was growth, driven by an illegal economy.  The underground economy and the criminalization of the State created some jobs. But if one were to add all of these jobs over the PPP’s 23 years, the answer would be obvious. Remittances, gold smuggling, cocaine smuggling, fuel smuggling and other illicit activities drove this economy. This is why a 34 year old gold miner can be arrested for fraud and for passing G$17 billion through his account over a two month period.
Omar Shariff, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Presidency allegedly   had G$18 billion passing through his account. Some of the construction in Georgetown and elsewhere in Guyana reflected no job creating growth, but illicit funds being legitimised through money laundering.
Now, back to the Private Sector which claims to be the “engine of growth”, but has not proven this through any job creation. In its current form, because of ownership structures; monopolistic, duopolistic and cartel modes of operation; the Private Sector is comprised of many non-competitive firms that are resellers of foreign imports. They manufacture very little. They rarely re-invest their predatory profits in Guyana. There is absolutely no innovation. Expensive and unreliable energy only accounts for part of the failure to innovate by the Private Sector. Additionally, the Private Sector lived of the largesse of the Government of Guyana.
If one were to truly investigate the Private Sector one would see that their profits are obtained from the Guyana Government through gold, land and other concessions; government contracts to build roads; schools and other Ministry purchases. Indeed, 70 % of the annual Guyana budget is spent through government procurement. In essence, the Private Sector is very dependent on the same government they are currently at war with through manipulations of foreign currency etc. Moreso, the procurement under Jagdeo was totally ethnic and political.  Hence, a very large part of the population, especially African and Amerindian Guyanese, were left with crumbs or were not even invited to the table of corruption.
Today, the country has changed and the new government is being asked to do what the previous government did not do. This is not a bad development. But our young people need to also appreciate several facts. First, the drug, gold smuggling and other illicit activities are being squeezed because the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is in Guyana. SOCU is for the first time pursuing money laundering activities under the AML/CFT Bill (note that the Bank of America has stopped being a Correspondent Bank because of money laundering activities). SARA will soon pursue stolen state assets. The Guyana Revenue Authority is clamping down on under billing and other “runnings” such as tax evasion and tax avoidance.  Fuel smuggling is being addressed.
Much of what is occurring in the Guyanese economy has been inherited from the PPP/C’s 23 years of rule and the criminalization of the State. Young people are indeed “looking for a change”. This “change” begins with the re-establishment of the Rule of Law and the dismantling of the criminal state that was inherited. Today, the same contractors that built bad roads because of corruption and kickbacks are still winning contracts because those denied contracts have been told they have no experience. The new government should have banned all of these crooked contractors but then the PPP/C would claim “ethnic cleansing.” Hence, young entrepreneurs and others whom have been denied in the past are also at the same advantage today.
Oil will soon be here. The last thing our young people would want is a criminalized state and criminalized economy where racism and ethnic marginalization are again the order of the day and where  Black Clothes Police and new Roger Khans will again be in partnership with a government to kill its own citizens so that a few can become rich. No more Parking Meter pickets etc. Our Youth deserve better. Our Nation deserves better. Our Young people are rightly upset. But they need to understand the true facts and not the PPP propaganda that this economy is dying.
Criminality, organized economic crime groups are indeed under pressure and the true economy is being revealed. From this base, the new government can build a strong inclusive resilient economy for all Guyanese. Our young people need to join in this campaign. They need to become more engaged in constitutional reform and in making the State a non-criminalized one.
Eric M. Phillips

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