Dear Editor,
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has reportedly taken offence over the IDB continuing to honour financial commitments to the Guyana government on the ground that elections are due to be held shortly and therefore there is an absence of parliamentary oversight over financial expenditures over resources provided by the Bank.
This argument is at best specious and lacking in any understanding on how the IDB and for that matter other international financial institution conduct their business.
The first point to note is that loans and grants are not given to promote partisan interests but to advance the overall good regardless of which political party is elected to government. This is why there can be no hiatus in the operations of the Bank whose modus operandi is based on predictability, political stability and continuity, and not on considerations based on narrow partisan self-interest, as is being suggested by the WPA.
The WPA ought to be aware that even during the days of PNC dictatorial and minority rule both the IDB and the IMF did business for a time with the then regime, even though significant sums of money were spent on ill-conceived projects many of which never saw the light of day. One consequence of such reckless financial management by the PNC regime was a crippling foreign debt burden.
I think the IDB ought to be commended for the confidence it has displayed in the country rather than the unwarranted attacks it has been receiving from the WPA and the political opposition as a whole.
Yours faithfully,
Hydar Ally
