Opposition members yesterday described the 2016 budget as “life-sucking,” lacking in vision and responsible for the death of the Guyanese dream of a good life.
In speeches at yesterday’s opening of the budget debates in Parliament, successive PPP/C parliamentarians expressed the view that the budget, rather than beckoning Guyanese toward the “good life” will make the middle class poor and the poor poorer.
Opposition MP Joseph Hamilton in a presentation laden with sarcasm challenged Finance Minister Winston Jordan to identify wealth-creating measures in the budget.
“Where is the bake and salt fish? Where is the pepperpot? Where is the chowmein and the cook-up rice you spoke about in your budget speech?” he asked.
Declaring that the government apparently thinks “the masses are asses,” Hamilton stressed that it is the economy that needs to be fixed by wealth-creating measures not measures to pick poor people’s pockets.
“In the budget there is no meat on the bones for young people. This is what I call a vampire budget. It will be sucking the life out of people,” Hamilton said.
Youth, he claimed, don’t want a broad policy statement, they got that in 2015 since which time their economic situation has become worse.
“Don’t give us fanciful rhetoric and fictional numbers, give us coherent plans. How much money will be invested? How many youths will be trained?” he asked.
The MP then turned to the Ministry of Business which he declared should be called the ministry of no business since there is an expected $78 billion decline in investment for the year 2016.
“Nothing is happening, no money is turning, business is slow. The ministry is a stillborn child. Apparently the minister believes he must mind his own business. If he were minding the Guyanese people’s business he would not say this budget would raise the spirits of the people,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton was followed on the opposition side of the house by Nigel Dharamlall who continued the attack.
According to Dharamlall the budget lacks vision.
“It is a cynical plan to entrench the government and a haphazard approach to strengthen the economy. It is going to pauperize the poor,” he said adding that the budget also shows collusion with certain interest groups as it panders to a select few, disregarding the masses. He labelled this “cronyism,” which he stressed is a form of corruption.
He highlighted that $300 million were spent on the Georgetown Restoration Project in 2015 while more than $300 million have again been budgeted for this; $200 million under the Ministry of Communities and $100 million under the Ministry of Infrastructure. According to Dharamlall, these allocations continue to be made to a project being conducted without any form of public procurement.
Dharamlall’s claims were taken up and expanded upon by the next opposition speaker Zulficar Mustapha.
According to Mustapha the present administration is making regional allocations based on the political support it enjoys from the particular region.
Declaring that the budget should be renamed, “stifling growth; removing confidence; the good life buried,” he told the House that it is too harsh to create a turnaround in the economy. Instead it will become burdensome on the backs of the Guyanese people since it has failed to address welfare as well as the needs and concerns of the country’s poor.
“Our country is in a state of retrogression, the economy is flattening and the business sector is in a state of uncertainty. While all of this is happening people are suffering,” he said. He called on the government to offer practical solutions to these problems rather than pretty rhetoric.
“Let’s be practical. Flowery language that receives applause will not take Guyana out of this economic crisis,” Mustapha told the assembly.
