An exercise in cosmetology

Jan 08, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The Private Sector Commission of Guyana (PSC) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) should withdraw their submissions, relating to Budget 2023. Those submissions were treated with disrespect and disdain by the country’s Second Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at a consultation held recently at State House.

Bharrat Jagdeo’s comments were extremely disturbing. He accused the PSC of making a submission which was mostly about tax reductions. Similarly, he said, that the FITUG submission dealt mainly with a request for better wages. The Vice President implied there was no framework informing the two submissions.

But how does he know this? It is downright condescending for the Vice President to level such criticisms. If the Second Vice President wants organizations to couch proposals within a framework, then a different kind of consultative process is required, one that would be far better structured than merely inviting submissions and holding a cosmetic one-off, one day stakeholder meeting.

The proposals submitted were related to the Budget, the one-year plan of the government. If Jagdeo desires a framework approach, then this has to be related to consultations for the medium- term and long-term plan of the government.

The Government has not pursued such a process. Instead, the Government has designated its Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030 as its national development strategy.

But this Strategy is not a national development plan. It is fundamentally focused, as was the original LCDS, on obtaining financing for eco and environmental services.

The Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030 is essentially a document developed to bolster Government’s efforts at obtaining climate financing, including from the sale of carbon credits. The LCDS 2030 is so blatant and vulgar in its financing posture that its four objectives are listed as :1) Value Ecosystem services, 2) Invest in Clean Energy and Stimulate Low Caron Growth, 3) Protect against climate change and biodiversity loss and 4) Align with Global Climate Goals. The LCDS 2030 reads like an environmental manifesto rather than the national development strategy which it pretends to be.

The APNU+AFC produced an unwieldy and voluminous document called the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS). Despite its flaws, the GSDS lays greater claim to being a national development strategy than the LCDS.

It is however not too late for the Second Vice President, to initiate a process which would allow stakeholders to contribute to the development of a framework for a medium-term development plan. He surely cannot expect them to do so merely for the annual Budget consultations. He may be misguided in believing that there is no underlying framework informing the submission by FITUG and the Private Sector Commission.

The submission of specific proposals for tax reforms is not inconsistent with a neo-liberal framework which speaks to growth and the private sector as the engine of that growth. The Private Sector Commission has long called for tax reform. But it is the Governments of Guyana – both those of the APNU+AFC and the PPPC – which has for three decades have undertaken tax reforms in a piece meal fashion. No wonder the PSC’s submissions are dominated by requests for specific tax measures; it knows what to expect from the Government.

The Government surely could not have expected much from the one-day consultation which amounts to a farce. The optics was poor at the consultation. The Government financial gurus sat at the head table on the stage while the stakeholders sat below in the audience, symbolic of one group talking at and talking down to the other.

This is not the manner in which a consultation should proceed. And it certainly does not lend any credibility to an inclusive process for developing the one-year financial plan of the government.

The preparation of a one-year Plan for the Government has been reduced to crunching numbers and fulfilling Manifesto promises. It is not derived from any medium term or long term plan. In fact, it is now being rumoured that the Government is recruiting persons to prepare a medium term plan and this is why Irfaan Ali can now talk about Guyana Beyond 2030.

The one-day, one-off consultation was an exercise in cosmetology. It was months too late and it was much too flawed a process – the Ministries have already submitted their provision estimates and plans – for any meaningful consideration to be given to the proposals made at that meeting.

The Private Sector Commission and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana should take umbrage at Jagdeo’s comments and should immediately withdraw their submissions. That would be the most honorable thing to do by self-respecting persons.

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