Dear Editor,
During October 2011, the Government of Guyana (GoG) offered for sale Treasury Bills valued at $3 billion, which indicated that the Ministry of Finance was running out of funds to meet its obligations, particularly since anticipated budgetary appropriations made earlier in the year have not materialized thus far.
Nevertheless, during October-November 2011 GoG-PPP/C were dishing out millions free to anyone who claimed to be a flood victim in the Rupununi, the Salvation Army, the disabled, farmers in distress and worthy supporters everywhere. I have no doubt that many of the distressed peoples from these various categories in the society are deserving cases and merit generous Guyanese help, but as the saying goes, ‘You cannot give what you don’t have,’ even to win votes. The PPP/C philosophy is to borrow and spend as they see fit, irrespective of the dire financial consequences their spendthrift action has on the rest of society.
The PPP/C administration should take heed of what is happening in many of the Eurozone countries which borrowed heavily during those years of easily available money to finance ill-conceived projects and schemes that have not grown their economies and created jobs as promised, and now that payback time has come, their peoples are rebelling to make the required social and economic sacrifices to honour the financial obligations their leaders made on their behalf during the good times. As a result, widespread unrest is manifesting itself in these countries as they slide towards bankruptcy.
During the past 10 years under the PPP/C there has been no successful major industrial development, and there is unlikely to be any in the foreseeable future, since although there is lack of raw materials and cheap power for major industries, their push and assurance for hydroelectric power along the coastland for the past five years has been seriously flawed because of technical, economic and financial factors, making its development highly problematic. A case in point is the rush by GoG to construct an access road to Amaila Falls Hydropower site which was scheduled to have been completed in September 2011, then revised to December 31, 2011. The evidence suggests that it is unlikely to be completed before Yr 2013 at a cost yet to be determined, as design specification changes daily and the contractor has been experiencing severe problems with the constant breakdown of his equipment, timely supply of materials, shortage of a skilled labour force and a steady cash flow to finance operations. Therefore, financing of the hydropower project is still in the doldrums and unlikely to be resolved any time soon, having regard to the present state of the world economy and the availability of investors to risk their money in third world projects, particularly where there is great public concern to guarantee their investments in hydropower projects.
In Guyana’s case it is not clear at this point of time who would be the guarantor for the loan. I am sure Guyanese would not want their government to guarantee the loan for a project whose escalating cost seems to be open ended. Therefore, voters should be conscious when they vote on November 28 that the government of their choice will spend their tax dollars wisely on carefully selected development projects to create jobs to uplift their living standards and not for the enrichment of a selected few.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
