H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL - Budget 2024 - PPP Govt. can only count up to six

H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Budget 2024 – PPP Govt. can only count up to six

Jan 17, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – The much-touted, much-anticipated cost-of-living relief in this year’s budget was always going to be long on promise, and short on substance. It was why I said right here to my fellow Guyanese: manage expectations. Whatever were the expectations Guyanese had, they now have to deal with the reality of a budget that is grinding on them, unhelpful to their circumstances, and wounding to their psyche. If in these times of a record-breaking economy, of a record-breaking budget, this is all that Dr. Ashni Singh had for them, then when and what can they ever expect better from this PPP Government that is now a confirmed horror story lived with by the Guyanese people. Apparently even an illustrious citizen as book bright as Dr. Singh has extreme difficulty counting past six.

GHK Lall

I say this because there is this jarring situation: out of a budget that is $1.146 trillion, according to Dr. Singh, over $70 billion is what is in it as relief for Guyanese. I discern that to be about 6% of the total budget. This has to be governmental and leadership depravity, this 6.1% in relief. Look at the numbers set aside, as so charmingly presented by Dr. Singh (as read): $3,000 for the aged, $3,000 for the handicapped, $3,000 for an eyecare test, and $5,000 for the children, for a start. See what I mean that the government can barely count past six, and surprises itself a few times by actually reaching a little higher than that magic number, conjured in the bowels of the government. It is a con job. Candidly, if this is the kind of product delivered to the Guyanese people, then what about those who crafted this budget, with these paltry provisions for Guyana’s poor?

This is the vision of beasts of the lowest order, in what is provided for Guyanese from below the middle of the economic staircase on down. If the government cannot be kind and caring today to its people with substance, then it is crippled from doing better in the future. I include any period of that newest fable from about futuristic revenue maximization. If Guyanese are treated to the scorn and curse of the minimum in this time of relative plenty, then they might as well give up now. Or there is the alternative: get rid of these hustlers, self-servers, and self-enrichers now deeply embedded in today’s PPP Government.

I acknowledge NIS pension increase, optometry assistance, fuel and freight provisions, and the rest, and put this before the public. The 2024 budget shot up by $356.9 million over the one from 2023, which is an almost 46% increase (near double). Yet the PPP Government and Dr. Singh have the indifference and irresponsibility to present $3,000 here and $3,000 there. I urge citizens to look at the contortions of our Guyana Scholar, where he calls the pension increase 75% since the PPP resumed office. Indeed, 75% it is, but this is the cleverness that shrouds the $3,000 increase that is really a 9% increase in 2024 over 2023. This is a tidy example of how politicians and scholars rearrange numbers and narratives to suit their slick practices, which are as close to sleazy as one can get.

Excellency Ali has already earned distinction as a Hollywood performer; he may have to go to Cannes and Bollywood to collect his due for this sleight of hand that his government has delivered to Guyanese, none more than the expectant poor. I note the $7 billion reserved for action after consultation with stakeholders. I detect a slush fund, and wonder if it is going to be housed in the Office of the President again. Also, I hope that these mysterious stakeholders are not members of some new PPP cabal.

When I think of these trashy $3,000 budget provisions [and others in close monetary proximity], I discern a set of dreadful political leeches sucking the blood out of Guyanese, and climbing on their backs to take care of themselves and their own. To use Dr. Singh’s total, when $70 billion out of $1.146 trillion (yes, trillion) is all that could be spared for the wretched of Guyana, then it would be revealing about where absorbed the other 94%. That would be the over one trillion Guyana dollars remaining. I am sure that infrastructure made out gorgeously, and did even more splendidly than previously. This is how budgets are laced with visions and provisions of what is corrupt. This is how the PPP Government rewards and corrupts its insiders and tricksters. This is how all Guyana is corrupted, and now beyond repair or retrieving.

Years one and two of a government like this was a start. Year three projected a pattern. Year four is culture and religion. It is now obvious that the budget provisions for the poor of Guyana is indicative of the pathology of the PPP Government, which is of the profane and putrid. Put these guys near millions and the monstrous results. Now the scarred and sickened of Guyana are left to lick their wounds and lament the sordidness of this budget, and those who wish to claim credit for it. Anyone who finds it favorable is a total fraud. Anyone who defends it is more than a conman. He or she is also one sick puppy.

(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.)