The Quality of Life

Nov 04, 2018 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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(Excerpts from an address by H.E. David Granger )
‘Quality of life’ is a measure of citizens’ satisfaction with their lives. People’s personal values and life experiences determine their level of satisfaction. This includes health, independence, participation in community and civic activities, personal development, physical and material well-being, recreation, relationships with other people and social support.
Citizens, usually, are uncomfortable with high levels of crime; insanitary conditions in the countryside and city and incivility by officials, all of which contribute to lowering the ‘quality of life.’ These conditions should not be regarded as a permanent state but as temporary problems to be solved.
The State, regional administrations, the media, municipalities, trade unions and civil society can do much to enhance the quality of life, to give citizens the feeling of satisfaction and to solve the problems that affect them.
Public services are essential to citizens’ ‘quality of life.’ Public services involve public trust. Citizens expect public servants to serve the public interest with integrity and reliability in order to manage public resources efficiently.
Public trust encourages active citizen participation in society and the economy. It makes public agencies more accessible and more accountable. Reliable public services inspire public trust and create a favourable environment for human safety and for the functioning of businesses thereby contributing to well-functioning markets, economic growth and, consequently, a high ‘quality of life.’
PUBLIC TRUST
Dreams of a ‘good life’ turned into a horrible nightmare at the dawn of the new millennium. The most unforgettable experiences and most frightening evidence of our descent into chaos were the bloody, drug-driven, decade-long ‘Troubles.’
The ‘Troubles’ will be remembered as the darkest hour in our history. It was a time of the un-investigated assassination of a Minister; of the investigation into the alleged implication of another Minister in the direction of a ‘death squad’; of the alleged implication of yet another Minister in the acquisition of a computer to track the telephone communication and location of adversaries targeted for assassination.
It was a time of arbitrary arrests; of disappearances and of torture of young men; of the surge in armed robberies, narco-trafficking and gun-running. During that first, deadly decade, there were 1,317 murders and 7, 865 armed robberies.
It was a time of deception and the cynical rejection of £4.9 million UK Security Sector Reform Action Plan for which a memorandum of understanding was signed in August 2007; of the rejection of recommendations of numerous security reform reports and total disregard for the implementation of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan.
The evidence of the impact of the man-made criminal crisis is still visible. The damage is most manifest in the demoralisation of the public and security services, the erosion of public trust and the lowering of the ‘quality of life.’
The grisly security situation was accompanied by a parlous economic situation. The undermining of public infrastructure by the encouragement of cronyism led to serious, costly, serial scandals as seen in the construction of the Kato Secondary School; the Hope Canal bridge; the river-front revetment at Kumaka, Barabina road and Moruca bridge; Supenaam stelling and the still unusable Ministry of Social Protection building in Georgetown.
The paralysis of public telecommunications became evident in the incompetent or corrupt implementation of the US$70 million Fibre Optic Cable Project and the misapplication of computers under the ‘One Laptop per Family’ Project.
The environmental policy will be remembered, forever, but not fondly, by the administration’s responsibility for the most destructive environmental disaster in Guyana’s history — the catastrophic 2005 flood. This was an event of incalculable damage, disease, discomfort and, in some cases, death.
The exaggerated emphasis on narrow elements of the Low Carbon Development Strategy obscured the absence of strategic thought and action. Guyana’s rich biodiversity, wildlife, wetlands, coastal zone, rivers were not adequately protected against the ravages of lawless logging, mining and solid waste mismanagement.
ECONOMIC POLICY
Your Government entered a depressing financial landscape in May 2015. The economic legacy that this nation inherited was characterised by a lack of strategic planning and whimsical decision-making. The absence of a policy to provide employment opportunities for youth and to reduce extreme poverty and the failure to energise the manufacturing sector weakened the economy.
Economic mismanagement was accompanied by huge debts for unpaid international obligations and court judgements. The most grave financial problem was the bankruptcy of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) which owed $89 billion in debts. Your Government was forced divert money from economic development and social projects to rescue the ailing corporation with an immediate injection of $12 billion. An additional $11 billion had to be provided the next year, 2016, making a total of $23 billion bailout in 18 months.
These transfers exclude the servicing of GUYSUCO’s debts in respect of the Skeldon Estate Modernisation Project – a monstrous and monumental US$200 million mistake and, probably, Guyana’s single most costly industrial catastrophe of all time.
Paddy farmers in the rice industry were not spared the previous administration’s reckless mismanagement. The PetroCaribe Fund – used to meet payments to farmers for rice and paddy shipped to Venezuela – contained less than US$1 million in May 2015. Your Government was forced to make available nearly $4 billion immediately so that poor paddy farmers could be paid.
Your Government inherited a large number of liabilities, including judgements in excess of US$34 million (or G$7 billion) in favour of NH Elias, in respect of the East Bank Demerara Road; judgement for $1.3 billion in favour of Rudisa Beverages; judgement in favour of Trinidad Cement Limited; settlement for $1.4 billion with B.K. Tiwari on Haags Bosch Project and several other judgements that will cost the State over $1 billion.
Your Government, also, was obliged to provide another $5.4 billion to bail out the National Insurance Scheme as a consequence of the previous administration’s irresponsible CLICO investment.
Your Government, despite encountering this immense mountain of debt, was able to meet commitments to the nation’s hard-working public servants. The minimum wage grew from $39,520 in May 2015, to $55,000 in January 2016, an increase of 39.2 per cent in 7 months.

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