By Peter R. Ramsaroop, MBA
Introduction
Every year I write a New Year’s letter to the President. When I reviewed last year’s letter, I found that not much needed changing. I had asked for him to meet me; I am still waiting. The President said the economy grew by 2% in 2009 without any data to back up his statement; based on recent financial reporting that would be an impossible growth number. What is true is that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) collected the highest amount of our taxpayers’ dollars in 2009 and Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said such collection was due to the buoyant economy. This is financial rape on the citizens of Guyana. As we all shopped on Regent Street during the Christmas season, we went for the nice looking and cheap Chinese toys only to find out the day after Christmas the toys for our children didn’t work anymore. No one’s salary really increased significantly and upward mobility and job creation was not there in 2009.
Dear Excellency,
All the best for 2010.
While you have been out travelling the world selling Guyana’s forest for cheap dollars, we have had the opportunity to meet many citizens across Guyana and want to share some of their concerns with you in the hope that you will finally realize that it is us the citizens of Guyana that you serve, not the international community.
1. On the top of our list as you should be aware is the burdensome tax system. Citizens are very concerned that your government created the VAT on January 1, 2007 right after you won the 2006 elections. They were surprised that during your campaign, you never addressed this issue, even though there were numerous calls from many of us to overhaul the tax system and reduce the income taxes on us. Many are wondering if in 2011 prior to elections, the PPP will present a plan to reduce the VAT as an election gimmick.
2. Second on the list was the failure of your government to maintain the drainage system in our beautiful nation. You have spent billions of dollars on a few contractors to maintain the drainage and irrigation system. A better approach would have been to hire 10 people per village with the right equipment to maintain their community drains. That would have created jobs in each village and a culture of pride. In addition, you need to be provided with a new engineering plan of what drains connect what trenches to what outlet. Paying money to a contractor to clean a drain that is then blocked by houses or roads, then cleaning another part of the drain over the road without looking under the bridge and realizing that only a small clogged pipe connects the two drains is an exercise in futility. Hiring villagers and giving them jobs will have a much greater impact. In addition rice farmers in Region Five suffered because basic maintenance of the canals was not accomplished causing great losses.
3. This is a point I wrote to you about last year. I visited Berbice and spoke to many residents. They are very pleased, as I am, that the Berbice River Bridge is operational. The big issue now is that you cannot just triple the cost to cross the river, which is the reality when you compare the bridge tolls to the ferry charges. It is inhumane. The farmers are forced to add that additional transportation cost on their products and therefore has to pass it on to us the consumers. These increases in costs mean that the government will now get more money in VAT. This is more rape by government. In addition, you spent our NIS money to build the bridge, so how come we have to pay two times for the bridge. We all appreciate the need for improved infrastructure, but making us pay both with our NIS deductions and tolls makes us feel you and the PPP government just like to squeeze us for fun.
4. Many of the citizens voiced concerns over the apparent willy-nilly granting of concessions to friends and the access some of them have to government resources through the tender process, including state properties. We wanted to remind you that those are our properties and every time they are transferred to private persons/organisations without an open, transparent bidding process, we feel the government is stealing from us. For example we do not believe that the Diamond Estate land should be sold to friends but used to grow more cane for the production of Ethanol.
5. Some of our staff visited the Amaila Falls, where for the hydroelectric project touted for the last five years is to be set up. From an engineering standpoint, this is the wrong location, as the terrain is not conducive to such a project. I would recommend smaller hydro projects across the country. You preached for the last two years of the building of a Marriott-branded hotel. Millions of US dollars were wasted to move sewage pipes, then citizens were told in your 2009 New Year’s message that the global financial crisis had stopped the project.
Then in November it emerged that a new company Atlantic International Inc will still build an international hotel in Kingston. We wonder where we can find the details as to how the Guyanese people are going to get the returns on their investment.
6. Our hope is that Your Excellency accepts this letter as constructive criticism. It is our hope that you start 2010 with a new passion for our country and focus on projects that will benefit us the people in ways that help us take care of our families. Projects such as paving the road to Brazil need to be started, as they would create thousands of jobs for us. Programmes need to be implemented such as hiring residents of each village to maintain the drainage system, and reducing taxes and other levies placed on us in order to increase our spending power, which ultimately as you should know as an economist, will turn the economy over 10 times for every dollar we spend. We are proposing an E-10 Policy to help with our energy crisis and where the sugar industry can be diversified.
7. We do not believe the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is a realistic model for development financing – essentially the PPP has placed development financing of the nation at the whims of global deal making and political uncertainties. Thus, the PPP has placed all its financing eggs in one basket. Furthermore, it is jeopardizing the welfare of the masses of bauxite workers, sugar workers, housewives, farmers, public servants and others. Therefore we propose the establishment of a state development bank. We see a state development bank as deepening financial markets and complementing (and not competing with) the commercial banks.
Mr President, I ask you to focus on fixing Guyana in 2010 before travelling to other countries and working with us on the projects that will improve the lives of us the citizens. We are available to meet at the earliest opportunity.
Very sincerely,
“Roop”
Send comments to peter.ramsaroop@gmail.com
