Wasted State Resources on Lobbying While Amaila Falls Project Fails

Jul 08, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – As a young Guyanese who follows Guyana’s fiscal and development trajectory closely, I am compelled to express my deep concern and disapproval over the Government of Guyana’s recent decision to spend substantial public funds on an overseas lobbying firm, all while continuing to pour resources into the long-failed Amaila Falls Hydropower Project.

The use of state funds to hire foreign lobbyists — reportedly to shape international perception or curry favour abroad — raises serious ethical and economic questions. In a time when essential public services such as healthcare, education, and local infrastructure face underinvestment, diverting millions to Washington-based firms does not represent prudent fiscal management. It reflects a prioritization of image over substance — an indulgence in politics rather than an investment in the people.

Even more troubling is the government’s parallel decision to continue funding the Amelia Falls Hydropower Project, which has languished for over a decade without producing a single watt of electricity. This project has already consumed vast sums of taxpayer money with no measurable return. Independent audits and feasibility studies have repeatedly highlighted its economic risks and technical shortcomings, yet the administration insists on propping it up, driven more by political legacy than practical value.

The economic cost of these missteps is twofold: first, the direct waste of state resources, and second, the opportunity cost of what those funds could have achieved if redirected towards viable energy solutions or community-driven development. With global energy markets offering increasingly affordable renewable alternatives, clinging to a dead-end project suggests either willful ignorance or political obstinacy. The Guyanese people deserve a government that exercises discipline, transparency, and long-term vision in its economic decisions. Lobbying firms abroad and failed megaprojects at home are not hallmarks of good governance — they are warnings of misaligned priorities.

I call on civil society, the private sector, and independent institutions to scrutinize these expenditures and demand accountability. Guyana stands at a crucial economic juncture, and its leaders must choose development over display. Fancy gallop don’t WIN race.

Sincerely,

Joel Ramesh

Founder and Chairman

VJM Foundation

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Amaila Falls Project Fails, Hydropower, Joel Ramesh, VJM Foundation, Wasted State Resources

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