The Private Sector Commission of Guyana (PSC) is still less than impressed with the conduct of the CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO) and upholds the view that the organisation is not serving the needs of the Caribbean Community as it should.
In a release on Tuesday, the PSC registered its “profound and unreserved disappointment” at the CPSO for their failure to engage the PSC which is the apex private sector body in Guyana, or any of the private sector bodies in Guyana.
The PSC was referring to a recent meeting held between the Executive leadership CPSO and President Irfaan Ali. According to a report in the last Sunday Stabroek, the CPSO discussed issues concerning non-tariff barriers and other matters related to the advancement of CARICOM. The fact that the CPSO representatives during their visit here didn’t meet with any of the private sector bodies in Guyana prompted the PSC to “condemn in the harshest possible tone, the gross and egregious exhibition of disrespect for the local private sector in general, on the part of the CPSO.”
In the Sunday Stabroek report, Head of the CPSO’s Secretariat, Dr Patrick Antoine had said it was in no way a snub of this country’s business support bodies, but that the meeting with the President had been long pre-arranged.
The PSC release on Tuesday reminded that earlier this year, following the passage of Guyana’s Local Content Bill into law, the CPSO found itself in a “deep controversy” after it appeared intent on mounting a legal challenge to Guyana’s recently enacted Local Content Legislation. And according to the PSC, “Their justification for this absurd posture was framed within the pretext of an allegation of breaching some clause (s) of the (CARICOM-founding) Treaty of Chaguaramas. This was met with an overwhelming and resounding level of condemnation from the local private sector at the time.”
As far as the PSC is concerned, with respect to Guyana’s Local Content Act, the CPSO in its view was “completely out of order” given that in the framing of the Local Content Act, there was more than one year of several rounds of stakeholder engagements and consultations. “At no point during this period, did the CPSO (seek) to engage the Guyana private sector and at least participate in the consultations in shaping the Local Content Act. They had the option of engaging with the local private sector at any time and or submitting any written submissions on their take as regards the Local Content Act at the time, to the relevant authorities. Evidently, they (the CPSO) did neither of this.”
Further, the release said that subsequent to this development, several private sector bodies had engaged with the CARICOM Secretary General on the matter. It was at that meeting that questions surrounding the legitimacy of the CPSO were highlighted with respect to the institutional composition of the CPSO and its mandate versus the intended institutional composition of the CPSO in terms of how it ought to be and function in the true spirit of the Treaty. It was pointed out that the CPSO in a statement described itself as “the most recently-accredited Associate Institution of the Caribbean Community” and is mandated to act as the “apex” institution for the private sector in CARICOM, with a mandate to contribute to the full implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
The release said that the membership of the CPSO comprises private sector entities operating in the CARICOM space, including micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs). It is currently being chaired by the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a Trinidad-based conglomerate. The PSC also opined that the current institutional composition of the CPSO is not reflective of the entire private sector of CARICOM. It also argued that a few large regional conglomerates have “arguably hijacked and dominated” the CPSO and by virtue of so doing, are “unequivocally and predominantly advancing their individual and collective agenda, while marginalizing and excluding the wider private sector of CARICOM.” The PSC informed that at the outset, there were three large corporations in Guyana that were part of the CPSO to represent Guyana. However, for the reasons described herein; an abuse of and outright demonstration of partisanship of the CPSO by a few large regional conglomerates, two of the three companies exited the CPSO’s membership.
So, as far as the PSC is concerned, the CPSO is not operating as it should and its membership composition which is the fundamental basis upon which the CPSO ought to have drawn its legitimacy, is not, in reality, what it was intended and ought to be in the spirit of its mandate, inter alia, as an affiliate institution of CARICOM.
“To further substantiate our claims, in our meeting with the CARICOM Secretary General, she admitted that not only Guyana’s private sector, but she has also received complaints from other organizations outside of Guyana–that is, in other CARICOM countries that they have not been engaged to have their interests represented at the CPSO level.”
Another example cited of breaches by the CPSO in terms of its functions, is that the organisation has been attending the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) meeting and making representations, which is primarily a function of the respective governments. The release explained that the mechanism for engagement at the COTED level has a process which involves the local private sector representing their issues, firstly, to their respective governments who in turn advance these issues at the level of COTED.
It is therefore against this background that the PSC stated its desire to call upon CARICOM once again and by extension the CARICOM leadership, to re-evaluate the CPSO, its membership composition, institutional structure, and whether in the current dispensation it is genuinely seeking to achieve its mandate in the correct, intended framework and to have the entire private sector of CARICOM represented.
The PSC “strongly” recommended that the CPSO gets “its house in order” and put in place a comprehensive stakeholder engagement plan with the wider private sector of CARICOM and not just Guyana, with the view of ensuring the wider memberships of private sector are adequately represented at the CPSO level so that it can truly achieve its mandate of regional integration.
Antoine had said in the Sunday Stabroek interview that this month, CPSO’s focus will be on engaging private sector organisations in Guyana so that they can work with it. As the regional business body, it looks at business development in the Caribbean and seeks ways to tackle constraints and impediments to trade and other issues affecting that development.
