Latest update October 22nd, 2026 6:44 PM
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New money spending
Editorial…
(Kaieteur News) – The PPPC Government has a set of standing tricks which is used to fool unsuspecting citizens. Billions are spent and all that citizens get from the government are carefully worded packages that conceal more than they reveal. Oil funds, borrowed funds, budgeted funds, Consolidated Account funds, and they all end up in the same tight spaces. Two examples should suffice, one old and worn, the other new and already manifesting its weakness.
The old is represented by the billions of US dollars which have been withdrawn from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), with almost automatic precision year after year since its inception. After that action, the billions disappear into a thick, impenetrable jungle. We at this paper can only see it one way: deliberate obscuring of the money that belongs to all citizens by a clever government. What to make of billions of US dollars grabbed from the NRF, when the accounting presented by the government is “national development priorities”? That is an all-purpose bucket into which any amount of dollars can be dumped, and anything can be said of how those are spent. National development priorities do not inform citizens of on what, where, when, and how much was spent on specific projects and programmes. That is part of the trick of the PPPC Government’s accounting for billions of taxpayers’ dollars. Offer something for public consumption, when the reality is about saying nothing. What are the specifics of a billion or 10 billion expended on any one project? It could be in Berbice, it could be in Essequibo and to the deeper parts of it, or it could be in Demerara. With the billions withdrawn from the NRF and the other billions borrowed, projects that are the essences of “national development priorities” could be taking shape in all three counties of Guyana.
What are they, and where are they, and how much was allocated to each? Those are the questions that persist, grow stronger and sharper by the day. A government that has nothing to hide does not have to hide anything related to spending. A government that does not have anything to fear does not see it necessary to use “national development priorities” as a shield. That is too vague and too general. It works well, for a time, as an umbrella for those who need to shelter their probable malfeasances with the people’s money. A government cannot claim that it is all about transparency and accountability on one side of its mouth, while the best it does for accounting for oil billions rests with “national developments priorities, from the other. It may be seen as the best in self-protection, but more citizens are seeing it as their government taking them for fools.
It is the same situation with almost $90B spent on the housing sector in the first half of this year. Another huge chunk of taxpayers’ funds, and another broad, hazy, representation from the PPPC Government on how the $89.9B was spent. Similar to national development priorities with oil funds, so also “expand affordable housing for citizens.” What is the extent of this affordable housing expansion? How is “affordable” measured and how many “citizens” have benefited? Affordable housing should have a ceiling. It targets certain income levels. It includes improvements for residents in squatting areas. Unfortunately, it also could mean anything in the mind of the PPPC Government. This government has burned citizens so often, that citizens have become extremely cautious in accepting anything that it says. Having been burned repeatedly (oil contract, Commissions of Inquiry, chronic secrecies, and so forth), citizens are not just watchful, they are skeptical.
Why does the government have to draw a veil over what reasonable people consider normal? An amount as significant as $89.9B needs some flesh, the government gave only bones. A key interest is houses and house lot. How much of the $89.9B was spent on those two areas which mean so much to citizens? It cannot be that difficult for the government to give specifics. So many house lots were involved; these many houses were part of the spending. When it refuses to do so, it is likely that the usual PPPC Government tricks had another rewarding day.
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