Harmon rips PPP manifesto
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon

…says document short on new ideas, specifics
…urges Guyanese not to be hoodwinked by old promises

DIRECTOR General in the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, is challenging the originality of the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPPC’s) manifesto noting that it simply restates many developments already done or that are being carried out by the APNU+AFC government.

Addressing reporters at the PNCR weekly news conference, on Friday, Harmon dissected several of the pledges contained in the PPP’s manifesto, zooming in on areas that focus on sugar, mining and oil and gas. The PPPC, on Friday, presented excerpts from their manifesto at the party’s headquarters on Robb Street, calling it a “Plan for Prosperity”.
Plan of poverty

“I call this a plan for poverty of the Guyanese people. Looking at it I can see a set of ideas and programmes which have already been put in place by this administration being attempted to be warmed over and sold to the Guyanese public as something original from the PPP,” Harmon related.

“To repeat it as if this is something new when you are really warming up food that has been there already, and putting it out to the nation as if this is your thing, it is wrong. They taking this thing already cooked put it in the microwave warm it up and serve it as if it is their own. All of these things that they have here, is really an attempt to hoodwink the Guyanese people”

In their excerpts the PPP spoke to pledges such as establishing “a fairer, more transparent system for allocating mining concessions” and says that they will “expand and upgrade roads in mining communities” and provide “training for miners through apprenticeships and education opportunities”.

All issues mentioned, Harmon pointed out, were already being addressed by crafted programmes. As part of its efforts to ensure the fair distribution of mining lands to applicants, the Minister of Natural Resources through the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) conducted a series of mining lotteries, which saw hundreds of miners being allocated lands in several districts.  Preference was given to native residents of each respective districts.

In 2016, the government launched the mining syndicate initiative, and in August of this year the National Mining Syndicate, a parent body of mining syndicates in Guyana, launched their constitution. “The mining syndicate initiative has been responsible for giving hundreds of small miners greater access to land. Four mining lotteries were held this year alone, which gave out over 500 mining blocks to small miners. The Guyana Mining School and the technical institutes have trained over 700 young miners in various techniques, including mapping, mined out pits, pit preparation and safety,” Harmon noted.

“The government over the last two years or so has spent over $4 billion on hinterland roads. Miners, foresters and residents in regions 1, 8, 9, 10 are singing the praises of the government for the roads which we have done in these communities.”

VAT reduction
Harmon also touched on the PPP’s manifesto promise which spoke to the Value Added Tax (VAT). VAT was introduced by the PPP in 2007, at a rate of 16 percent. Since entering office in 2015, the APNU+AFC has reduced the tax to 14 percent.

“They speak of VAT as if it is something that the APNU AFC just brought in. We have to remind people that this was something that was brought in by the PPP. They speak about tax concessions, and we have to remember that the VAT was introduced by the PPP, at 16%. When we came into office we reduced VAT in an incremental way to where it is right now,” Harmon noted.

In their promises for the oil and gas industry, the PPP said they would “establish” an arm’s length Sovereign Wealth Fund insulated from political interference, notwithstanding there already being signed the Natural Resources Fund, which was renamed from the SWF, into law in January 2019.

The January signing made Guyana one of the few countries to have a SWF in place before “First Oil”. The law sees the setting up of a Public Oversight Committee (POC) to examine proposals to manage the fund’s resources, and comprises some 22 members, representing a wide cross-section of society.

“You can go to the law and you can find what they are saying here already in writing, debated and passed in the National Assembly. We have a SWF which is an Act and incorporates all of the things that they have here. So to repeat it as if this is something new is really warming up food that has been there already. We done cook this food, we have it on the table,” Harmon expressed.

Sugar estates
The PPP also reiterated their plans to reopen shuttered estates of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuco), even as the party and its presidential candidate continue to dodge specifics on how they plan to go about that without pumping losses into the industry.

“These promises in very many cases bear no semblance to reality. For the PPP now in their manifesto to say they would reopen the sugar estates, I would like to know on what information basis they are going to do that,” Harmon asked. “This blank statement that we will reopen sugar estates, when you examine it, when you go into the details you will see how fake this promise is. And it is not something that any right thinking Guyanese can take on face value.

” Tearing into the issue further, Harmon questioned how the PPP could revive the industry given their stellar record of mismanagement, decline and unaccountability in the industry across the 23 years they oversaw it. “We need to go back a little bit so that we understand where we are with this PPP promise about reopening sugar estates. For the tenth parliament for almost every single budget the PPP promised to turn around GuySuco.

There were so many turn around plans in the National Assembly that we were getting high-turn. Every year, so many billions for a turn around, so many billions for a turn around,” he said.
Harmon is confident that Guyanese will not buy into the PPP’s schemes. “I am quite positive that with the developments that would have taken place over these last four and a half years they will say yes Guyana is on the right track and we want this track to continue,” He said.

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