Despite abundance of oil money, Government fails to ease cost of living burdens – Shadow AG

Jan 20, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – Despite the oil revenue backed 2023 budget being over forty percent higher than last year’s, it has failed to address the high cost of living problems faced by the nation’s vulnerable. Shadow Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Roysdale Forde said in a public missive yesterday that even “with an abundance of oil money, the Government has not put in place systems to ease the burden of the high cost of living on the people.”

As the parliamentarians’ gear for budget debates in a matter of days, the Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) is already registering his dissatisfaction with the government’s proposed spending. Forde described that budget as “a poverty trap in the oil and gas economy.” He said this year Guyana’s economy is expected to grow by 100 per cent when compared to 2022 and 2021, but the majority of Guyanese are being left out.

He said the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) continues to refuse to negotiate with the Trade Unions in keeping with those workers’ right to collective bargaining. “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that in 2022, inflation in Guyana rose to 9.4 per cent (but) workers who received pay raises only got 8 per cent.” He said that public sector pay increase proposed by the Government is budgeted at $3billion in salary adjustments for healthcare workers and members of the disciplined services, but “the allocation is insufficient even for the identified categories.” He said public service workers go beyond the identified workers but they were not catered for an increase.

“Increasing the tax threshold by $12,000 is negligible when compared to the President and Ministers who continue to pay themselves increases when they pay ordinary workers, but their income remains tax free” Forde pointed out. He claimed that the sum allocated to the agricultural sector is not for the development of ordinary farmers, fisherfolk and sugar workers, but an avenue for Government to channel money to the ‘One Guyana’ beneficiaries. “GuySuCo continues to be plagued by ineffectiveness and inefficiency. President (Irfaan) Ali must address his mind to fixing the ailing industry. Throwing money behind it without a proper plan and allowing for poor management will not deliver successful results,” Forde warned.

He said that while education is a gateway to escape poverty, many are being deprived of it. “The allocated $3.7 Billion to the University of Guyana (UG) and $1.8 Billion to the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme, which represents half of UG’s sum, is misdirected,” Forde believes. He said the money given to GOAL should have been directed to the university and local educational institutions like the Critchlow Labour College, the Technical Institutes, and Trade Schools, while recruiting local educators and paying them more. Instead, 2023 is another year when Guyanese are being denied free university education despite Article 27 of the Constitution of Guyana stipulated this as a right “and the country can more than afford to pay for its citizens’ education. A child grant and uniform grant could never be a substitution for quality education,” Forde emphasized.

The MP related that the sum allocated for infrastructure within the country represents a significant portion of the budget, but believes it was deliberate since “infrastructure presents avenues for corruption…” He said the opposition and citizens have not forgot the corruption and money laundering revelations with Vice President Bharrat and missing Chinese Su Zhirong involving state assets. Corruption has increased under the Ali government, according to the Transparency International Corruption Index, Forde said. “(And) there is every reason for Guyanese to feel this budget, the largest ever in the country’s history, could create possibilities for increasing corruption if President Ali does not return to the anti-corruption policy of the Coalition government.”

Guyanese want to see fairness by Government and many do not feel they are getting their fair share. “Their views are not without justification. The Budget was not about All Guyana, only about President Ali’s ‘One Guyana’. Mr. Ali has ignored the calls of United States Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch to be inclusive and ensure shared prosperity. He has ignored the inclusionary requirement of the Constitution. He has ignored the input from the political opposition and many stakeholders in society,” the Shadow AG informed. He opined that “the 41.6 increase in spending is not designed to address the 48 per cent of Guyanese who live on less than $1200 per day, the 49 per cent of Guyanese who are poor, the Public Servants finding it increasingly difficult to have three square meals on the table, and keep a roof over their heads when inflation has outstripped salary increase.” He said the 2023 budget is amazingly uninspiring and profoundly disappointing and one clear message in the Budget is that people do not matter; things do.

Senior Finance Minister Ashni Singh, highlighted a $10,000 increase in the income tax threshold, $3,000 increase in public assistance and another $10,000 hike for parents with children attending schools between the nursery and secondary levels in budget 2023. Persons requiring public assistance will now receive $16,000 monthly as well as the disabled, while pensioners will receive $33,000 a month. The government has again set aside $5b for cost-of-living measures to be determined.

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• living burdens, oil money, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Roysdale Forde, Shadow Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister

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