PNCR-1G parliamentarian Keith Scott on Wednesday accused the PPP/C administration of failing to deliver the means for workers to live with “dignity” despite the billions of dollars being spent annually in the name of development.
Scott was at the time addressing the National Assembly during debate on the 2011 national budget.
“The style of this budget is more based on grim infrastructural spending rather than the full improvement of the quality of life for the ordinary man. Forgotten is the necessity for wages and salaries to at least keep pace with the cost of goods at the market. The cost of living outstrips the take home pay of the small man. I don’t see the brighter future; I see the PPP/C manifesto 2011 promise. I see the nightmare of workers just living to exist day to day,” he declared.
According to Scott, the ordinary worker prays for a reduction of the 16% VAT but that prayer will not be answered. He added that the worker would be happier earning $75,000 per month, paying a reduced VAT and be taxed and still be able to take home a living wage for a salary.
“This failure to deliver the means for the workers to live with dignity will not be forgotten. The bauxite and sugar workers will not forget. They experienced the dissipation of the hope of 1992 and have come full circle where a culture now permeates many villages; university graduates can’t find jobs, murders are unsolved, crime is high and wages are low and government has no clue how to retain skills in the country in spite of the many training programmes they have mounted,” Scott said.
He added that workers have now turned with “conviction and trust” to the shared governance platform of the PNCR1-G and other forces to chart the new Guyana for which they sacrificed. According to him, “the time for change is at hand.”
Meanwhile, he also decried the state of the workers’ unions, while saying they have lost their voices.
“Trade unions are impotent and their relevance has been largely undermined by the annual imposition of the take-it-or-else 5% addition on wages and salaries. They are no longer consulted on wages and when they attempt representation, are now threatened with derecognition by both a former workers’ government and by private employers who are only too happy to follow the lead of the government.
“The time is now for the movement to reassert its militancy as workers, the lifeblood of our country, have been reduced to a small percentage of the macroeconomic needs of the country. Now is the time workers must unite.”
Scott also addressed the government’s practice in recent years of returning to the House for supplementary allocations despite the fact that every year the budget is growing. According to him, this sows “seeds of distrust” at the initial request and leaves pertinent questions about the soundness of the plans and projects for spending unanswered.
He said the government’s promise of a brighter tomorrow rings hollow since the reality of shoddily done roads, inoperable stellings, poor service and wharves that float away have conditioned the minds of the people for the negative. The PNCR-1G MP said Guyanese expect a living wage, security at home, and the delivery of an education that at the end of their primary school years would equip them to be literate and numerate
“This is where government is yet to deliver and time has run out. They have failed the population in ways that directly impact on the poor man’s living standards. The housewife is aware that today’s average monthly wage of $35,000 to $40,000 buys less at the market than the monthly wage of 2008 use to buy,” Scott stated.
