Budget debate…
MINISTER of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, on Wednesday night, challenged Opposition Members of Parliament, during the continuing Budget debate, to tell the whole truth and not leave out the facts and provide a skewed picture.
“Members of the Opposition have not been fair and have misrepresented the facts. Sometimes they make charges without any evidence,” he complained in the House. Ramsammy noted that MPs on the other side have, focused, entirely on what, in their estimation, they see as shortcomings and failures of the current administration.
“This is not unexpected and this is, in some way, what they are here for. It is their role and responsibility to scrutinize and identify our failures, our deficiencies and to represent their constituencies. I have no objection to the approach the Opposition Members have taken,” he pointed out.
But Ramsammy emphasised that Guyana is not a perfect country and there is none where faults cannot be found with its government and implementing agencies.
“There would always be issues and matters that the Opposition can find good arguments and good stories to tell of failures, deficiencies, poor implementation and less than effective policies. This would be true for the best democracy in the world. It would be true for the richest countries in the world,” he admitted.
However, Ramsammy maintained that the world over has acknowledged the success made by Guyana, in particular its reclassifying from a low income to a middle income country.

QUOTE:‘In the continuing story of how we, as a nation, try to create a just and equitable Guyana, we have not yet attained our dream of eliminating poverty, of creating a society in which equity and social justice have been fully realized. In this, our Guyanese story, lessons have been learnt and we all understand that the only true road to achieving a society where poverty does not persist and where social justice is our gift to every child born, is by working together.’ – Dr. Leslie Ramsammy
He said the Government Members tell the story of development, successes, developing Guyana and its citizens and the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) MPs have much to talk about.

ROBUST ONE
“The development story in Guyana is a robust one and Government MPs can talk proudly of the work the PPP/C Government has been doing in the last year and, indeed, throughout its tenure. And, as much as we would want to deny the truth, the Guyanese people and the world know that we have grown, significantly, as a nation, in the last two decades,” Ramsammy said.
He alluded to the argument put forward, on Monday, by Alliance for Change (AFC) MP, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, who read and spoke the words in a book by a an author called Collier.
“He read those words as if Mr. Collier was writing about Guyana. But I looked up the book and, in no single paragraph, did Mr. Collier write, specifically, about Guyana. But, if one listened to the Honourable Member, he or she would have thought that Mr. Collier wrote specifically about Guyana. Yet Mr. Ramjattan must score points and he rather, skillfully, tells a story that is not Guyana’s truth, not quite the truth,” Ramsammy stated.
He reiterated that the facts must not be skewed to misrepresent reality.
According to him, another example of misrepresentation, was by People’s National Congress Reform-One Guyana (PNCR-1G) MP, Dr. John Austin, who talked about 20 percent growth in the economy under the PNC.
“That was a new example of either self-denial or of rewriting history,” Ramsammy quipped.
He also mentioned what he called the “innovative explanation” as to why Guyana had no audited accounts for more than 10 years leading up to 1992, under the PNC regime.
“No one can deny the Opposition tells their side of the story with gusto and passion and, sometimes, with a fair share of embellishment. There is an inherent responsibility for all Members of the House to be fair and to try their best not to misrepresent the facts and not to be untruthful and to, as far as possible, tell the whole truth and not only a part of the truth,” Ramsammy reminded.
About the main criticisms heard from the Opposition, that the one for 2011 is an elections year budget, Ramsammy said while he accepted the criticism as a legitimate one, he observed that the Opposition MPs have only advanced one argument on the largest budget ever.
“The Guyanese people know that every budget presented by this Government happens to be the largest budget in our history. The fact is that the PPP/C Government has now presented 19 budgets and an analysis of these budgets would reveal that there has been an almost straight line, in terms of the budget, on an upward trend since the first in 1993,” Ramsammy contended.
He said the fact is that when the budget is analysed against a set of benchmarks, which would allow one to characterize it as an election year one, that for 2011 would not qualify as an election year budget.
“For example, the fiscal deficit is one of the smallest in our history,” Ramsammy asserted.

QUOTE:‘We have moved from the sad and disgraceful days when most of our medicines were gifts of expired supplies, when the diabetes medication changed from week to week, depending on what we received that week as gifts.’ – Dr. Ramsammy

HALLMARK CHARACTERISTICS
In that context, he said the PPP/C Government has always prepared budgets that are consistent with “hallmark” characteristics that:
* tell a story of development, economic, physical infrastructure, political and
social development, as the country is built, modernised and as the social welfare
needs of the people are met;
* facilitate the building of a democracy and the creation of space for the participation of citizens;
* create a work plan that takes into consideration Guyana’s ability to finance it, so that a heavy, unbearable mortgage, for future generations to carry, is not left, as was the case when the main Opposition lost power;
* address the needs of our communities and our people, our children, our women, our elderly, our disabled and our workers, everywhere.
“Whether it is an election year or not, these are the fundamental pillars on which the PPP/C Government develops our annual budgets. We have never waited for an election to do what we need to do to develop our country and to satisfy the needs of our people. We do this every day. We treat every budget as a development instrument,” he reiterated.
He agreed that, even with the development instrument, Guyana does not, yet, have perfect health.
“Several Members seek to raise deficiencies and failures of the health sector. I know some of these deficiencies and failures they talk about are, sometimes, unfortunately real. These stories humble me and drive me. We have so much more work to do,” Ramsammy accepted.
Still, he described, as unfair, the situation in which persons set out to paint a negative picture of the health sector because of a few irregular occurrences.
“It is unfair to select a few instances and seek to make people think that this is the situation all the time, that every time someone comes to the hospital or health centre, there is no medicine and that the only result we have in our hospitals is that everyone dies,” he lamented.
Responding to PNCR-1G MPs, Ms. Vanessa Kissoon and Mr. Desmond Fernandes, on the issue of medicine shortages, Ramsammy said that issue is a persistent but reducing deficiency.
“It is a deficiency that exists even in the most advanced health system in the world,” he posited.

TREMENDOUS ACHIEVEMENT
Ramsammy made the observation that it is important to, equally, acknowledge the tremendous achievement, in that Guyana is able to provide all of the essential medicines in accordance with and going beyond the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, a major accomplishment.
“We have moved from the sad and disgraceful days when most of our medicines were gifts of expired supplies, when the diabetes medication changed from week to week, depending on what we received that week as gifts,” he said.
Ramsammy repeated that there is a true story of Guyana, of accomplishment under the PPP/C Government, expressly since Guyana is presently one of very few countries where all medicines in the Public Sector are free.
“One problem we continue to experience is the timeliness of reporting and of requesting medicines,” he concurred.
Kissoon charged that Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice) has been neglected and asked why.
Ramsammy replied that Region 10 requested $160M in medicines and medical supplies and received $130M worth of supplies in 2010, an 81 percent fulfillment of the request.
“This does not mean, for example, that Region 10 would send people away 20 percent of the time. We, sometimes, give less than requested because of over ordering,” he explained.
Fernandes made a similar allegation in relation to Region One (Barima/Waini) and was told, by Ramsammy, that the Region requisitioned $54M and received $39M, 72 percent of the requirement.
On child mortality, the Minister denied Kissoon’s accusation that the health sector has murderers.
Ramsammy said: “We all get a little carried away in this House and I know that the Honourable Member Ms. Kissoon cares about her community and I know that she has no intention of disrespecting the work the health workers do at the Linden Hospital. On reflection, I know she would regret saying that Linden Hospital kills people.”
He said, in 2010, almost nine million children died, mostly of preventable causes, across the world and hundreds of millions more were very sick from preventable causes.
Like many countries, Guyana has come a long way in ensuring it reduced the number of preventable deaths in children, Ramsammy said.
“There is no country that has reached a stage where preventable deaths still don’t occur. At the WHO, we have a proposal for us all to work to eliminate preventable deaths among our children by 2025,” he disclosed, adding that, at the end of 2010, due to efforts over the years, deaths of children under five were lessened to about 20 and the goal is to achieve a target of 16 per 1,000 by 2015.
“One of the major reasons for this dramatic turnaround is the immunization story. Guyana today spends more than $400M on our immunization programme and every child is now guaranteed life saving vaccines,” Ramsammy offered.
As regards maternal mortality increase in the latter part of 2010, he said, through the decades, Guyana has made significant progress.
“Have we made enough progress is a legitimate question?” he asked.
“The truth is that the health workers of Guyana have worked hard and have improved the situation,” Ramsammy answered.

NEGATIVE LIGHT
He said it must be understood that the same health workers being painted in a negative light are the same who have contributed to the successes in maternal health over the last years.
However, in 2010, the rate increased to about 15 per 10,000 live births.
“Many wanted blood, not without justification. Many called for punishment of the health workers. These, I remind you, are the same health workers that have reduced the mortality rate from 32 to eight and who must endure the embarrassment, the humiliation and the pain that the 2010 reversal brought us,” Ramsammy said.
He said he knows that more can be demanded of the health workers but, at the same time, all Guyanese must be bold and courageous enough to stand with them when the stories are not of glory.
Ramsammy said the current Administration will continue to direct resources to continuously improve the quality of health care delivered to the Guyanese people.
Approximately 10 percent of the total current expenditure is in the 2011 budget for health, with a $14 billion allocation and he said that translates to expending about US$95 (G$18,666) per capita in the sector.
“This is a far cry from the U$6 we spent in 1991,” Ramsammy compared, noting that Guyana has to spend its money to achieve equity in health care and confront the “mighty mountains” which will test the sector’s resolve and mettle.
“In the continuing story of how we, as a nation, try to create a just and equitable Guyana, we have not yet attained our dream of eliminating poverty, of creating a society in which equity and social justice have been fully realized. In this, our Guyanese story, lessons have been learnt and we all understand that the only true road to achieving a society where poverty does not persist and where social justice is our gift to every child born, is by working together.”