Nagamootoo flogs Jagdeo for misinformation
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo

FORMER President and Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, has reportedly done what some would not have believed, according to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo: Jagdeo has reportedly manufactured figures to deceive the Guyanese people.The Prime Minister skillfully articulated his argument in the National Assembly last evening as he spoke extemporaneously, yet he commanded attention of the House.

Unfortunately, the Opposition party, which occupies the western half of the House, had staged a walkout just prior to Nagamootoo’s presentation. That party holds only 32 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly.

Nevertheless, with confident tone and upright posture, the Prime Minister trashed the presentation of Jagdeo, who had been the speaker immediately before him.

The first issue that the PM pronounced on was rice, which is considered one of the pillars of Guyana’s economy. According to the Prime Minister, the PPP’s contention on the expiration of the PetroCaribe deal is not reflective of “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”. Nagamootoo revealed that the PetroCaribe deal had prematurely come to an end while the PPP was in office, but that party had not told the Guyanese public, particularly rice farmers.

“It was not this Government which was responsible for that!” a fired up Prime Minister declared. Further, he charged that if Jagdeo was so concerned about the welfare of rice farmers — as he attempted to prove during his presentation — he should have interrogated his own colleague, head of the Rice Producers Association (RPA) Dharamkumar Seeraj, about the $100M taken from the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).

“If he was so concerned, he would have had Mr Seeraj return the money, and give it to rice farmers to help them with difficulties. And the $2.5M a month that was paid over many years to the RPA could have been money given to help rice farmers,” Nagamootoo said.

Last year, following the presentation of the Coalition Government’s maiden budget, Jagdeo, at a press conference, had commented that the Government had promised to pay rice farmers $6000 and $9000 per bag of paddy.

“I hope that it’s real money, because it will allow APNU/AFC to pay the $6000 and $9000 per bag of paddy they had promised the farmers,” he was quoted as saying at the press conference held at the Party’s Freedom House Headquarters.

This assertion, sadly, appears to have been one of the figures manufactured by the former President, who also once served as Finance Minister. In rebutting this contention, which has on several occasions been ventilated by Jagdeo, the Prime Minister noted that no such promise was ever made by the Government, since it was not even featured in the party’s manifesto.

Flaunting the manifesto in the absence of Jagdeo, he stated, “They are inventing these things! These figures were invented and [are] being thrown around.”

Surprisingly, that was not the only allegation manufactured by the former President. “The biggest thing manufactured was when he [Jagdeo] said the 2015 Elections were rigged… That was an excuse to justify the defeat,” he said.

And while the Jagdeo/Ramotar Administration demitted office with 40 per cent of the country’s population living below the poverty line, the Prime Minister noted that this was coupled with an $82M debt that GuySuCo owes.

What he also deemed hypocritical was the PPP’s cry that the Administration is doing nothing to save sugar, when they themselves failed to defend sugar workers when they were most in need. The PPP Administration presided over the closure of two sugar estates.
With the recent announcement of the closure of Wales Sugar Estate, Nagamootoo related, the agony of the workers and their families is shared by many.

CROCODILE TEARS
“But we need to have conversations with workers and let them know what opportunities are opened up to them,” he said, adding that he cannot accept the “crocodile tears” of the PPP members, who came to the House to talk about Wales’ problems.

Reaffirming the administration’s commitment to sugar, he referred to the $9B subvention for GuySuCo in the 2016 Budget and the already approved $12B which was pumped into the industry last year.

And while the Government’s commitment has been tangible, he noted, the PPP Government was “pinching the purse when it comes to the sugar workers”, and putting workers on the breadline.

The issue of Guyana’s energy potential also engaged the attention of the Prime Minister, who at this point in his presentation showed no sign of exhaustion.

With Jagdeo heavily touting the idea that the PPP-piloted Amaila Falls Hydropower Project would have been cheaper and more beneficial to the people of Guyana, the Prime Minister said one photograph of the falls having “no water” discredited that contention.

“All their [PPP] claims were answered by one photograph: ‘No water!’” Nagamootoo said.

Then it was claimed by the PPP, when the Government had announced its intention to explore wind-generated energy, that wind was not guaranteed. But this was done in a cunning fashion, as the PPP had been exploring this very option when they were in office.

The Prime Minster revealed that on May 27, 2014, when the then Cabinet met, a document was signed by then Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, which registered approval to execute the Hope Beach Windfarm Project.

And surprisingly, the investor at that time was Guyana Windfarms Inc, whose Director is Lloyd Singh, a man whom the PPP of recent has staunchly maintained is a coalition financier who is being awarded the windfarm contract by this Government due to his political affiliation.

Jagdeo had even disclosed at a press conference last month that Singh was a key player in assisting the Alliance For Change (AFC) to establish a permanent headquarters at Railway Line, Kitty, Georgetown.

And finally, PM Nagamootoo dismissed the Opposition Leader’s claim that the Coalition Government had promised public servants 20 per cent salary increase once elected to office.

Utilising the manifesto once more, the Prime Minister stated that he had spent a considerable time attempting to locate in the manifesto the promise of increasing salaries by 20 percent, but this had proven futile.
According to him, page 22 of the manifesto states that a payment increase of 10 per cent will be made, and this was done. Subsequently, unions were to be consulted on the method of allocation and what was to be given to workers.

Last year, the Coalition Government announced salary increases for public servants at varying rates, ranging from 6.0 per cent to 26.4 per cent.
Additionally, all public servants earning less than $500,000 per month were given a $50,000 one-off tax free bonus in December.

This year, the Government has announced that collective bargaining has been reintroduced and the outcome of that activity would provide a framework to guide Government’s policy on what more could be offered to public servants.

“We promised, and we are delivering what we promised on!” a zealous Nagamootoo declared.

 

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