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Budget shows Govt. priorities are mixed-up – AFC
Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan
– says billions pumped into GuySuCo could have gone to UG
Kaieteur News – Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan believes that budget 2024 is evidence that the Government is not interested in enriching the population but in pumping monies into projects that will benefit its agenda to remain in power.
Ramjattan shared his views on the official Facebook page of the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU AFC) opposition on Monday night moments after the budget presentation of $1.146 trillion was made by the Minister within the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh.
According to Ramjattan, while citizens would have anticipated more from such a large budget, particularly in terms of tertiary education, the government has once more proven that it is not interested in uplifting citizen’s living standards.
To this end, the AFC leader pointed out to budgetary allocation granted to two State-supported institutions—the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) and the University of Guyana (UG).
Making a comparison between the two, Ramjattan noted GUYSUCO getting a larger chunk of the budget– $6 billion while the University of Guyana given a mere $4 billion shows that the Government does have its priority right.
“Look, we need more people in the service sector and that will require educated people and the same sugar workers and their children would benefit from a University Education that can take them out from that kind of fetching cane to the punt but the PPP wants its support base to remain like that because they could go and fool them by talking bad things about the Coalition and get them to vote for them… And those fortunate enough to acquire a tertiary education or higher training…most times you find that as soon they get qualified, they seek employment beyond these shores and the country loses its capital in human resources,” the AFC Leader asserted.
He continued: “So they don’t care about that. The more kind of illiterate or uneducated the people are the better for them because they then will go to the people to give them some handouts and buy the votes. It is essentially that because the more educated population you have, you going to have people making demands and arguing the case that you are not delivering for us…When you have that type of money being spent but half only on education then where are we?”
Ramjattan went on to note that though the sugar industry is no longer economically viable, the government is resolute on pumping revenues into it.
“That money could have definitely gone to UG because GUYSUCO will continue to be a black hole because here is something that is supposed to bring in revenue; we are now taking monies out of the Treasury to ensure that they operate and it’s not going to get better. They (GUYSUCO) recently came out and indicated that they are not getting the workers, the labour is short but the government will continue to put monies there because it’s to keep its support base.”
Turning his attention to the public security sector, Ramjattan, a former Minister of Public Security under the Coalition government lamented the lack of provision within the budget for better wages and salaries for those employed within the sector.
“The Government’s budget caters for infrastructural upgrades but the people who are responsible for manning the security of citizens are not getting anything. Police officers especially need a better salary, how are they going to carry out their work, and do proper investigations, interrogations, and forensic studies if you don’t spend adequate sums on giving them a better income…The police now are impoverished in the context of a budget that is trillion dollars and more,” the AFC Leader reasoned.
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