The Government is out of touch with reality

Dec 09, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – Things could not have gotten worse. This week was a terrible period in the country. Five members of the Guyana Defence Force died after the chopper they were in crashed. It was a tragic affair.

But the situation got gloomier. While grappling with this tragedy, the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, yesterday announced a mere 6.5% increase for public servants. The Stabroek News had hinted that the increase would have been around 9 per cent. Even that was considered as inadequate. But public servants desperately struggling with inflation would have accepted that with a small smile. But 6.5% is utterly disgraceful.

The increase offered by the Minister is an insult to this country. Given the depressing high levels of inflation, it is a travesty for the government to have offered such a pitiful increase to public servants.

The government cannot be serious. The cost of living has become prohibitive. While the government has not stated the present rate of inflation, the reality on the ground is that it is far higher than the increase offered by the government to public servants.

A 6.5% increase cannot compensate for the real inflation within the economy. One has to question the inflation numbers that the government is using and how reliable is that number. Perhaps, the President can intervene and commission and independent review of the inflation rate, with a commitment to ensure that retroactive salary increases would compensate for real inflation and not the figure the government imagines.

Rent has skyrocketed, increasing between 25% and 50%. Persons are being forced to migrate further to the suburbs just to obtain apartments and flats to rent. And rent, a major component of the inflation basket is not cheap.

Food prices have been on the uptick. Almost everything has gone up in the country and one has to ask whether the government is living in another country to offer such a measly sum to public sector workers. The government claims that it has imported chicken. But no announcement has been made as to where this chicken can be bought and what is the price at which it is being sold.

The 6.5 per cent increase offered to public servants makes a mockery of Guyana’s claim of being a high-income country. How is it that the country’s national income is high but real wages are declining?

Guyana is the fastest growing economy in the world. But the public servant salaries are not being commensurately increased. Guyana is enjoying double digit growth – and the government is boasting about this. But public servants are being given single digit increases in salaries which many feel do not compensate for inflation.

The 6.5% increase is going to leave a great many public sector workers disappointed. They were looking forward to a more realistic sum that would have least compensated them for the increase in actual inflation. But this was not to be.

The government is detached from the economic realities facing its citizens. If the government truly understood the pressures being faced by ordinary citizens, they would not have made such an insulting offer.

Instead of addressing the immediate concerns of those affected, the government seems more concerned with superficial gestures, such as a marginal increase for public servants and the one month tax-free bonus for members of the Disciplined Services which has now become a legitimate expectation for the army, the fire service, the police and the prison service.

While the public servants have been offered a mere 6.5%, the business class is profiteering from the massive public works contracts. As such sections of the private sector are benefiting from the government’s skewed priorities and disproportionate allocation of resources.

The government could have done better. The increases it announced will benefit some 54,000 workers and cost the government a mere 7.5 billion which is far less than what will be earned by private sector companies bidding for government’s contracts.

Ironically, private sector workers will also suffer. The private sector is now keeping its wage increases below that of government. It does not wish to overprice labour. Thus, when the government offers 6.5%, the private sector is not likely collectively to top this

The increase offered to public servants undervalues their contributions to national development. It is the same public servants who are required to support government’s Public Sector Investment Programme and if they are being grossly underpaid, then they will not be motivated to give of their best. But don’t tell that to the government. It is out of touch with reality.

(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.)

chopper, Government, Guyana Defence Force, Peeping Tom, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance

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