In a lengthy critique of the government’s trillion-dollar 2024 budget, the GPSU says it will not address poverty or the cost of living unless priorities are reconsidered.
The Guyana Public Ser-vice Union (GPSU) expressed its displeasure at the shortcomings of Guy-ana’s budgetary allocations over previous years, as well as the current one and feels it is time for all stakeholders to engage in collective non-partisan planning to ensure the well-being of all Guyanese.
In a release on Tuesday, the union posited that budgetary allocations in Guy-ana over the past years, have failed to improve the living standards, and working conditions of the working poor. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the poverty rate which is about 38.8 per cent, is among the highest in the Caribbean and Latin America.
It was further pointed out that adolescent pregnancy is a major issue in Guyana, with more than 20 per cent of all pregnancies occurring among adolescent girls aged 15–19. It noted a United Nations (UN) report on Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, puts Guyana and Suriname at the forefront of ‘wasting,’ a severe form of child malnutrition. And is if these weren’t enough, unemployment in Guyana stands at 14.83 per cent or approximately 118,640 persons; while 39% of all Guyanese citizens currently are residing abroad. To press home the point, the release noted that public servants, including nurses, teachers, and men in uniform, are leaving the country in the hundreds. In fact, the UNDP reported that roughly half of all Guyanese with a tertiary education will migrate to places such as Europe, United States, Canada, Trinidad and other Caribbean Islands.
The union then took looked at several budgets and pointed out what it saw as major flaws or shortcomings. Firstly, it referenced the budget which was enacted in 2022 with the promise that the nation will remain “Steadfast Against All Challenges, Resolute in Building Our One Guyana.” It however concluded that at the end of that fiscal year, “the nation remained in oneness on only one matter; that is, that all the budgets in 2022 failed to improve the lives of the people, and address their daily needs and alleviate their challenges.”
Then it was on to the 2023 budget of $782 billion (US$3.75 billion) which was presented with the aim of “Improving lives today, building prosperity for tomorrow”, it also claimed that it was people-centred, and the citizens were first priority. The conclusion here was that the hefty provisions that were made with a view of improving the business portfolios of those individuals closest to the government. “Public servants, who are among the working poor, had no improvements in their living conditions, and absolutely no hope for a better future in which they could raise and educated their children.”
And finally, budget 2024, the largest in the country’s history of $1.146 trillion dollars which the union flat-out stated was not a projection of good financial planning for development, and described it as a recipe for ‘staying the course’ which is currently defined by an increasing gap between the very rich, and the working poor. “This could be seen as massive tax breaks for large corporations, and the sustaining of onerous tax rates such as PAYE, and VAT which are sustained on the backs of mainly public servants who are among the working poor.”
The release opined that the most pressing concerns facing Guyanese are: 1) the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) The discovery, monetisation, and regulation of oil & gas; 3) overcoming the political, and ethnically charged position adopted by leaders and their followers post National Elections in 2020; 4) the existential threat presented to Guyana’s sovereignty by Venezuela; and 5) poverty reduction, and the regression on sustainable development.
It added, “These daily trends continue to set a challenging context for governance, defence, socio-cultural balanced economic development that emphasise diversification and sustainability.”
GPSU’s position
As far as the union is concerned, it seems self-evident that there should have been a search for consensual problem definitions, solutions and plans on the part of government to engage key stakeholders. It observed that economic, social, human recovery and development planning are decades overdue, and as such, steps must be taken must take steps to genuinely achieve the Motto of One People, One Nation, One Destiny.
It explained that the plan should be multi-sectoral, and must include all stakeholders – private-sector, public-sector, unions, youth, women, Indigenous communities, and all other vulnerable populations in Caribbean Society and Guyana, in particular.
The release noted that although Guyana has been experiencing significant economic growth due to the discovery of vast oil reserves, and the resulting positive economic impact on other sectors in the traditional economy, this growth has not been evenly distributed, and poverty and income inequality remain persistent, and are affecting the majority of people.
Further, the rising cost of living has also been a concern for many, especially retirees, the poor and vulnerable, as inflation and the increasing prices of essential goods and services have outpaced income (pension), wage growth, and benefits.
It also pointed to the fact that Guyana’s per capita GDP now stands at US$20,960, which is more than three times what it was in 2020 and even surpasses the per capita GDP of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.
Based on these statistics, the release concluded that income inequality remains a sore issue since the nation’s wealth continues to be unevenly distributed. The national minimum wage is amongst the lowest in CARICOM amid Guyana’s expanding landscape and its growing regional influence, it said.
It was noted that in the 2024 budget, in order to tackle poverty and the rising cost of living, the Government of Guyana has outlined certain areas of focus, including infrastructure development, education, healthcare, and social protection. The budget proposed the following ten measures: 1) social protection; 2) education and human capital development; 3) healthcare improvement; 4) infrastructure development; 5) energy sector development; 6) insufficient allocation for social protection; 7) weak emphasis on job creation; 8) retention of professional and skilled human resources (brain-drain); 9) inadequate attention to environmental sustainability; and 10) education and human capital development.
The GPSU holds the opinion that Guyana’s 2024 Budget will not address poverty nor the rising cost of living through increased social protection, educational needs of the people and teachers, healthcare, infrastructure development, and the energy development, and professional and skilled human resources needed for national development.
Further, the budget falls short in several areas, including insufficient allocation for social protection, lack of focus on rural development, weak emphasis on job creation, and inadequate attention to environmental sustainability.
Therefore, to effectively tackle poverty, the rising cost of living, and address a living wage, the union feels government needs to reconsider its budgetary priorities and allocate more resources to these critical areas.
As such, the GPSU proposes the following: 1) Guyanese Society must go beyond the polarized exclusionary politics by which we operate presently; 2) we must collectively develop visions and phased strategic plans for the various sectors that move us towards a more diverse economy, and beyond just looking towards oil and gas; 3) we must also move towards an “inclusive, modern, and enlightened planning process” that includes the unions, private sector, opposition political formations, civil society and the masses; 4) a joint private-sector, public-sector, unions and other stakeholders, must be organised into an Official Planning Task Force, using scenario planning and broad consultative methods after the putting in place of the appropriate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platforms, to allow for immediate face to face and virtual meetings and outputs; and 5), the union proposed 12 critical sectors for consensual recovery and development, all underpinned by a robust ICT platform.
These sectors are: 1) visioning and planning; 2) sovereign wealth/finance; 3) energy; 4) mining; 5) business/ labour/diversification (tourism and emerging markets); 6) forestry; 7) drainage/irrigation/agricultural; 8) national security; 9) infrastructural/communication/ICT, 10) land; 11) environment; and 12) government machinery (Education, Health, Labour etc).
“At the political level it is unavoidable that national unity is secured through sincere meaning to our National Motto of One People, One Nation, One Destiny, and put our collective energy in one direction. There must also be meaningful, inclusive and enlightened development taking all concerns into consideration for the benefit of all,” the release said.
