Is a presidential palace in the making?

Jan 07, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – During the early 1980’s, there were plans to build a presidential palace for Forbes Burnham who at the time was Prime Minister and laying the groundwork to become an Executive President.  Burnham’s death in 1985 put paid to such plans.

The late Walter Rodney poked fun at the idea of Burnham building a presidential palace. During a WPA public meeting, a helicopter hovered overhead – one of means which the late dictator used to intimidate his political enemies.

At the time, Rodney was at the podium. Upon hearing the helicopter overhead, Rodney turned to the crowd and said, “Brothers and sisters, I am aware of the preferred mode of transportation of King Kong.”

He then went on to refer to the plans for the building of a new residence for Burnham. Rodney noted that these plans were being touted during a period when the country was   in a desperate economic crisis. “But you see, King Kong has decided to build a palace to his ego and a monument to his own stupidity. So that he could sit inside and be a monument inside a monument.”

Forty years onwards, it would not be far-fetched to assume that the present PPP/C government may be harbouring plans to build a presidential palace. We already have in Guyana a private residence that is perhaps the most palatial home of any Caribbean politician.

The present government is swimming in a sea of oil wealth. And a great deal of the money is being fritted away on wasteful projects. With oil production expected, within the next four years, to climb to one million barrels per day, it would not be surprising to learn of the resurrection of Burnham’s idea of a presidential palace.

Just recently, we learnt that the government plans to build a massive administrative complex east of one of the roundabouts on the East Bank of Demerara.   Trinidad has its own Twin Towers. Guyana plans to build four towers in the planned administrative complex, which will occupy 20 acres of land, and which will accommodate some 6,000 government workers.

Is this necessary?  Is the government expanding the bureaucracy? We are told that the total number of public sector workers is 54,000. This obviously includes the workforce of the Guyana Sugar Corporation and other government corporations and agencies. But the numbers also mean that in a private-sector driven economy, one in every five employed persons are on the payroll of the State.

Why build a government complex? This is an idea which the PPP/C has long toyed with but had discarded. But now with oil monies available, it has now resurrected this idea. But instead of building the complex at Durban Park in Georgetown, it has shifted the location southward.

What is to become of the existing government buildings that houses government ministries, departments, and agencies? Are these to be shifted to the East Bank? Has any study been done to determine the feasibility of this venture? Has a study been done as to how this affect existing workers within the government system who will not have to find transportation to the East Bank from as far as Parika and Mahaica?

But when you are wallowing in oil revenues, these questions are of mere academic value. Money is there to be spent and it will be spent.

The government is presently overreaching with its capital projects. Yesterday, a Stabroek News editorial enumerated several road projects which have fallen behind schedule. The primary reason for this is that the economy does not have the absorptive capacity for the present massive increase in government expenditure.

Guyana has long been warned of its limited absorptive capacity, by the international financial agencies, including the Inter-American Development Bank and the IMF. The latter recently urged the government to be cautious in light of the country’s absorptive capacity constraints. Since 2019, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has warned Guyana to exercise caution regarding the rapid injection of its oil revenues into the economy, emphasizing the country’s limited absorptive capacity.

Despite these warnings, the government continues with its public expenditure blitz. No wonder there are so many delays in completing government projects. The contractors are facing supply, logistics and labour constraints.

In his end-of-year press conference, the Minister of Public Works made a staggering revelation. He said that the government’s budget for 2023 for one line item alone – Miscellaneous Roads – was more than the Ministry’s entire 2019 Budget.

With the exponential increase in government spending across all sectors, and no corresponding improvement in the country’s absorptive capacity, is not surprising that so many major public works projects have stalled or are behind schedule?

But this matters little to the PPP/C. If overnight someone decides that a presidential palace is needed, then it will be built. The only problem is who will occupy it: the man from Leonora or the man from Pradoville 2?

(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.)

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• Forbes Burnham, Peeping Tom, presidential palace, Walter Rodney, WPA

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