The government is playing LUDO with the economy

Jun 02, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News– Guyana is heading for serious problems. It is now obvious that the same old discredited style of governance which characterised the Jagdeo administration is being replicated and repeated.
The present PPP/C administration is visionless and clueless about development planning. It appears to be only able to think short-term. There is no long-term development plan. But even in its short-term thinking, the PPP/C is displaying a lack of strategic insight and planning.
The government is now reduced to making ad hoc interventions. It set aside some $5 billion in the Budget for cost-of-living relief. But it does not have any idea as to how to go about utilising this amount so that as many people as possible can benefit.
And so it is reverting to a game of LUDO. It is throwing the dice and wherever it falls that is where the government is going.
The government decided, for example, to offer hinterland and riverine households a one-off cash grant. But 80% of the population do not live in these areas and so are automatically excluded from the latest cash grant. So are the coastland residents not also feeling the effects of the high cost-of-living.
On top of this it is distributing $1 billion of fertilisers to farmers – but no criteria have been announced. All that has been said is that the fertilisers will be distributed equitably. If the government feels that this free distribution of fertilisers will lead to a decrease in the cost of agricultural produce, they are woefully misguided. The farmers will not pass on the benefit – insignificant as it is – to the consumers.
If the government really wanted to help farmers and the country, it could have used that money to subsidise feed for small-scale poultry farmers who are hurting from the increase in the price of poultry feed.
Now the latest gimmick is to offer fishermen a one-off payment of G$150,000 each. And the government says that this is cost-of-living relief. How can this be cost- of-living relief? This is a grant to offset the hardships which the fisher-folk have been experiencing.
And it is ironic that it is only now being offered. The government says that the fishing industry is improving and that fishers are reporting better catches. So if the fishermen are doing better, why give them relief? This shows the wide disconnect between the stated objectives of the government and interventions it is making. The cash grant to fisherfolk can never be deemed a cost-of-living relief.
The government is also planning to help persons who have land to obtain financing for housing. This is another suspect venture by the government. To which institution or institutions is the government going to direct potential homeowners? And why is the government doing this when it should be using its resources to help poor people who are feeling the pressure.
The Vice President met with miners and announced a series of concessions including on lubricating fuel and the reduction and removal of some taxes. The biggest challenge in the mining industry right now is the cost of fuel. Admittedly, there is nothing the government can do about this short of applying a subsidy to petrol. So why does the government not grant to medium and small-scale miners, the same concessions which are granted to large-scale miners?
What was most interesting about the Vice President’s announcement was that he did not indicate that the measures which were announced were as a result of any negotiations with the Miners Association. It is reasonable to assume that some representation was made but instead of coming to a common agreement which would have been signed by both parties, Jagdeo chooses to announce concessions while sitting at a head table while the miners sat in the audience.
This is symbolic of the way the PPP/C governed during the Jagdeo regime and which is being repeated today. The government hears complaints and decides what it wants to do and announces it rather than seeking to have a negotiated position.
The miners are going to be happy with what they got. Who will not be? But it is the process which is bad.
But what impact are those measures going to have on the cost of production? It will not have any serious effect on the cost of production but will put more monies in the hands of miners.
In the meantime, other sectors of the economy are waiting to see how much remains of the monies set aside for cost-of-living relief. And how far the government can stretch it for them to at least enjoy an extra slice of bread for breakfast.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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