Govt spending tax dollars to woo electorate - Opposition Leader

Govt spending tax dollars to woo electorate – Opposition Leader

Feb 22, 2019 News

The leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, held a press conference at his church street office, yesterday, where he accused the A Partnership of National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government of funneling government resources into their efforts to campaign for the next General and Regional Elections.
He said that the Rupununi Ministerial outreach is not a sincere effort by the government to improve the lives of the residents, but a ploy to find favour with the electorate and to syphon funds into their pockets.
Opining that the trip is “abuse”, the opposition leader said that the government ministers are spending over $100M to go there “for the photo opp”. Many of the issues, he believes, could have been fixed a long time ago.
“Harmon says the president is going to meet to accelerate the land titling. You’re two months away from completing four years in office. You had US$10M left by the PPP to do this. And now, you’re talking about accelerating land titling because you’re faced with having to go back to elections.”

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

He said that the people understand that “they’re only out there now because of impending elections.”
Banking on criticisms of the government’s increased spending to shore up the bureaucracy over the years, he said that more was spent on the ministers and their comfort than on residents.”
“The trip was to steal some money; to spend a lot on admin costs, to try to convince people in Region Nine that they care for them, and that they’ll improve their wellbeing,” according to Jagdeo.
He said that the government has committed a series of counterproductive deeds in that region, including increasing the cost of travel and freight, increasing taxes that affect people in Regions One and Nine, and refusing to utilise the US$17M he claims the PPP left, for hinterland ICT projects.
“Now, when you’re faced with an election, you’re going to roll into the Rupununi convoy and think people will love you.”
The PPP General Secretary also raised a contention that the government is awarding contracts to hustlers affiliated with the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R), with kickbacks attached.
The kickbacks are intended to be used to campaign for General and Regional Elections in 2019, he said.
Jagdeo said he’s not worried about the ministers traveling, but that he’s worried about them spending taxpayers’ money to do so.

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