Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday defended his government’s support for the private sector in this year’s national budget, calling it part of its vision for economic development.
“We have no apology for trying to help the productive sectors of this country,” Jagdeo declared during his contribution to the budget debate.
Former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan had accused the current government of eroding the revenue base through the reversal of several tax measures. He explained that this reduction combined with the expected widening of the deficit could saddle Guyana with unsustainable debt. “You are destroying the revenue base and borrowing money. All because you want to destroy what you found and claim it was manifesto promises,” Jordan chastised last week.
His statements were taken on board by those member of the main opposition APNU+AFC coalition in the National Assembly. Opposition speakers accused the PPP/C of delivering a budget of relief measures for their “cronies” in the private sector but nothing for regular people.
According to Jagdeo, the relief measures for the private sector are for the regular people.
“They are the sectors that create employment for the majority of Guyanese, not the public sector. The majority of our people are employed in the private sector and therefore you have to support private sector growth if you want our people to be employed and to enjoy a great standard of living,” he explained.
He charged that in the absence of a proper economic policy, the APNU + AFC practised taxation and consumption, while noting that increased collection of taxes was not a sign of progress. “Creating jobs and welfare is the right path to economic growth,” he maintained while accusing the coalition of practicing a “parasitic” anti-poor and anti-growth management of the country’s economy.
He explained that by reducing taxes on inputs, the productive sector can expand and provide both employment for and services to Guyanese.
He claimed that even though the coalition improved government revenue it did not invest these sums into the country and instead it added 10,000 persons to the government payroll and used that money to support a “good life” for relatives and party members.
Minster of Public Works Juan Edghill, who presented the budget last week for the government, closed the debate as he supported Jagdeo’s contentions and stressed that despite the increase in staff, government agencies did not see improvements or modernisation and services provided remained poor.
Using the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport as an example, Edghill claimed that the coalition government repeatedly paid more for less.
He went on to call out the members of the opposition benches for failing to debate or critique the specific allocations. “They have come with vacuous statements which would look good on Facebook but could not find fault with any allocation,” Edghill stressed, while reiterating that every measure in the budget will benefit businesses, no matter the political affiliation of the owners.
Investigations
Meanwhile, Jagdeo also used his time to announce a series of investigations scheduled to begin next year. According to the Vice President, the last administration spent $419 billion without parliamentary oversight from November, 2018 and he stressed that a significant amount of that was squandered.
He also mentioned that an internal audit of the Guyana Defence Force has uncovered $300 million in fraudulent transactions with GuyOil.
“Over the course of the next year there shall be a number of investigations and the country will be shocked by the fraud involving members of the former administration,” he said while claiming that there evidence has already been uncovered at the Gaming Authority that there were requests for bribes to grant licences.
He went on to issue blanket accusations of bid tampering and illegal approval of contracts, and the hiring of friends and party supporters. “Just last year we saw the large scale illegal transfer of resources from NICIL,” he said, while citing the national holding company.
