“Come to the table and let’s talk,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon urged the opposition yesterday. “As a responsible opposition, you don’t just gripe,” he told the National Assembly, while noting that the opposition should join in efforts to make the country better.
During his contribution on the final day of the 2016 budget debate, Harmon demonstrated his skill at repartee by pointing out that the APNU+AFC government is a “fresh cow.” Responding to a statement made by PPP/C MP Joseph Hamilton that the budget has no beef, he reminded the House that the government is only nine months old.
“Ask your colleagues on the other side where is the beef? You would recognise after that by the time you arrived to the PPP the beef of the cow was already gone and only the bones were left. So, all you had to do was settle for was some soup from the bones to drink out of your cup,” he said to laughter and heckles from the other government MPs.
He said that while some “gripe, we have a nation to build. And in an environment where there is serious competition for investment funds for development, we have to be clear in this National Assembly of the message which we send to the world.”
According to Harmon, when foreign investors looked at Guyana before the end of 2015, they saw an international corruption index which was “not something which made them very comfortable.” He said corruption eats away at “the marrow of the bones left for the honourable member Mr Hamilton. It eats away at the moral fabric of society.”
He quoted the figures which represented Guyana’s standing on Transparency International Corruption Index for the period 2006 to 2015. He said that in 2006 the rank out of 166 countries was 121 and it rose before dropping to 119 in 2015.
“As we can see there is a decline in 2015 and we trust that the measures we put in place as a government will correct that perception and provide a quality public service which can make us proud and provide certainty to all, that we are a country serious about doing business,” he said
“Let us face reality. After 23 years in government, the PPP had become tired. They became a tired administration. Their ideas were tired. The vision they had for Guyana had become blurred into one of blindness almost,” he added.
Harmon said the measures outlined in the proposed 2016 budget will certainly stimulate growth and continue to restore that confidence in our people that Guyana is the place to live, work and earn.
He later introduced an Aurora, Essequibo Coast resident, whom he said had attended a Ministry of Presidency outreach in that area on February 4.
He said she had spoken of the allocation in the budget for the rehabilitation of the Supenaam Wharf and expressed hope that when the work was completed she would be able to remain and ply her trade there.
“What this is saying is that the Guyanese people are listening to us. They are reading what we say and they understand it,” he said, adding that he had invited her, as his guest, to listen to what is taking place. “A real person, not an object of my illusion,” he said to cheers.
Speaking to the woman and other Guyanese, Harmon said, “This budget is for you.”
