Debt and development

Jul 28, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – More borrowing means more spending, which means more opportunities to drain coffers and citizens. More borrowing is all driven by a single word: development. In Guyana, development is the equivalent of death, for a higher debt ceiling signifies a greater burden to be placed on citizens, as the magic of development swallows up billions more.

If Guyanese knew what they were getting for their dollars borrowed, there may be some justification for some of the projects in the development schemes of the PPPC Government. But the cunning spokespeople of a cunning government have found the perfect cover for all manner of skullduggeries, and its name is development.

Whether more US billions to be borrowed, or the billion already withdrawn from the Oil Fund, there is this push, at governments insistence, towards development. Development of what and for whom, is the burning question? While many expensive public works projects are announced for roads, bridges, and hospital and school facilities, among others, many citizens remain in a highly underdeveloped state.

Billions are borrowed, or removed from the Oil Fund, under the disguise of development, and still many citizens fight a losing battle at coping on a daily basis. The need for some balance has never been more pressing, especially with so many stretching out their hands and not getting anything that helps them to manage. How balanced it would have been for a more thoughtful plan of borrowing, in combination with careful tapping into the Oil Fund to push ahead with some development, while lifting up the lot of Guyanese struggling to deal with hard times.

From all appearances, the easy availability of huge loans, and the magnet of the US millions in the Oil Fund, have both proven to be irresistible to the planners and schemers in the PPPC Government. They drool at the thought of borrowing more and accessing oil money to help themselves, through the massive corruptions that have blighted this country. They have found the brightest banner to wave. It is called development, and it is as good as any that could be found anywhere.

More loans signify more development, at least on paper and in front of the cameras, and development generates a positive feeling because of how it glows with promise. When development is managed cleanly and the dollars borrowed give Guyanese the greatest value from the debt incurred, then there is neither concern nor argument. Given the history, however, of how governments have carried on the business of the people, and the results under the debt and development flags, most citizens have concluded that they are being taken for a ride. The sole difference is that it is a new day, and a new government, but with new and better tricks.

The reality of Guyana has been where development is the roof under which a den of crafty thieves find shelter, with chronic secrecies shrouding how the billions are being spent, or planned to be spent. Instead of government planning how to ease the pain and troubles of the ordinary citizen, there is this commitment to come up with many projects all at once, with opportunities to rob them. There is this great big rush to binge on borrowing, and leave the Guyanese taxpayers (and debtholders) with lasting hangovers.

Development of infrastructure to be ready for the next decades and century has its pluses, but it must go hand in hand with the development of the entire population. It is an insult, an abomination, when significant segments of the population of the richest people in the world have great difficulty paying the rent, honoring their other obligations and, most of all, feeding their families. In such circumstances, being labeled the richest people in the world becomes more than a mockery, it becomes a curse.

Considering the full slate of debt, plus the money taken from the Oil Fund, the regular Guyanese man and woman in the street should have been rising above their tough circumstances. For when they are in such a comfortable economic state, then those higher up the ladder could only be doing far better. Unfortunately, debt and development have been losers for Guyanese, which looks likely to continue indefinitely into the future.

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