Shadow Minister Carl Greenidge hiding from the shadow of his past
Shadow Finance Minister and APNU/PNC  Member of Parliament, Carl Greenidge, went on a rampage last Tuesday against the government’s landmark $192.8B 2012 national budget. One of the criticisms he levelled against the government was the delivery of service at public institutions, which he ascribed to inadequate remuneration and benefits.

PNC de-professionalised the public service
But Greenidge conveniently and selectively forgot to mention (because he certainly cannot forget PNC government policies that he helped to design) that it was his party while in government that had de-professionalised the public sector.
Decent, law-abiding professionals within the public sector were forced out by card-wielding party hacks and girlfriends of public officials.
When then President Forbes Burnham nationalised the Canada-based Sprostons holdings, of which the subsequently renamed Guyana National Engineering Corporation (Guynec, or GNEC) was a subsidiary, most of the older staff still retained their professional integrity.
Those au fait with shipping procedures are aware that tides play an important part in the movement of ocean-going vessels, so when Burnham paid an impromptu visit to Guynec and Mrs. Campbell, the secretary of the Managing-Director, Capt King, in her haste to complete requisite documentation in a timely manner for a ship in dock, did not leave her desk to pay obeisance to the dictator, as all public servants were required to do in his presence, he fired her immediately.  This was one of the most decent women and dedicated employees, with decades of service, who lost all her rights and benefits because she had become part of a public service to which the ability to say (in effect) “heil Burnham” was the only qualifying factor.
This was the era when bribery became endemic in the national psyche because ethics no longer prevailed and all the social and infrastructural systems had broken down.
This is the public service that the PPP/C inherited: a public service that had, after decades, not even the shadow of its former greatness.

Prime Minister Sam Hinds rebuts Greenidge
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds lamented the fact that, although there are public servants who deliver on their mandate to serve the public, he had to agree with the opposition members that many times the quality of service delivered to the public in government institutions is severely lacking and leaves a lot to be desired.
But in doing so he refuted Greenidge’s allegations about the severity of unemployment they cite as reasons for the criminal activities and other anti-social behaviour by those who want quick and plentiful money without being productive members of society.  According to the prime minister, the jobs, as proven by the vacancy advertisements, are there and plentiful, but job-seekers are greedy and refuse to work for the kind of income and benefits, and under the conditions Guyanese employers could afford to sustain.
When they accept the jobs they either work as if on a permanent go-slow, or they abdicate their responsibilities altogether.
The old adage that motivated the ancestors of all the races in Guyana to achieve optimally: “If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well” hardly ever holds true anymore.          Some Guyanese want the fast life: with the Blackberry instead of a simple phone, constant visits to the beauty parlour, where many modern public servants spend a fortune without considering that their children may have more urgent needs, or saving something for a rainy day.
And nowhere is the economic status seen with more clarity than in the traffic logjams on all the highways of the country at peak hours; and when BuJu Banton or KI has a show in this country.  Caribbean artistes love Guyanese audiences, because they have so much disposable income that they can afford to jam at mega-concerts with mega-prices several times a month.
The landscape of the country has changed, despite pockets of poverty here and there, which are inexorably being addressed as funds become available.

PNC impoverished the nation
Mealy-mouthed Greenidge chose not to mention that it was his party in government, this time under President Hoyte, that had frozen the salaries of public servants at $2,000 per month, and that it was the Jagan-led PPP/C government that had bravely rejected that IMF/ERP imposition on the Guyanese workforce and rejected that conditionality, simultaneously restoring bargaining power to the trade unions.
While patting itself on its back for its Economic Recovery Programme (ERP), which practically crippled the backs of the workforce and further impoverished the nation, the PNC elitists conveniently forget to mention that the ERP was structured to repay massive loans they had taken from International Financial Institutions(IFIs) and used in ways not visible to the Guyanese populace;and here I quote from the IDB’s Country Programme Evaluation for the relatively short period of 1989 to 2001, which is an indication of the massive borrowing indulged in by the PNC leaders under Greenidge’s stewardship of the economy: “The “cooperative socialism” policies adopted by the Government of Guyana from the mid 1970s to 1988 included the nationalisation of private companies in mining, agriculture and banking and the indirect
control of economic activities through the introduction of price, credit and foreign exchange controls. As a result, during the 1980s, GDP fell by about 3% per year and per capita incomes plummeted from US$600 to U$350. In addition, Guyana increasingly relied on suppliers’ credit to finance its external trade. As economic difficulties mounted and external and internal balances deteriorated, the country was unable to meet debt service obligations, thereby leading to the cessation of support from the IFIs (except the IDB, which continued with some small loans in the late 1980s). This deepened the economic crisis, depressing investments, employment and growth. By 1988, the government controlled over 80 percent of the total value of recorded imports and exports and 85 percent of total investment. The most dramatic reaction to the deterioration in living standards and the increase in poverty was the massive emigration of the more highly trained Guyanese.
In 1988, Guyana found itself facing enormous development challenges of the economy: debt overhang; a large shortage of trained human resources; the deterioration of infrastructure and the social sector and a potentially divisive political system.
“From 1989 to 2001, the Bank approved over $528 million in loans, $37 million in non-reimbursable TC operations, prepared one Country Programming Paper and two Country Papers, two Socioeconomic reports, a major independent study, Building Consensus for Social and Economic Reconstruction: Report of the IDB Pilot Mission on Socio-economic Reform in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and a number of economic and sector studies. It approved five sector adjustment operations totalling $167.2 million and a balance of payments support loan of $26.8 million. Two operations were approved from IIC for $3.3 million but one was written off and the other cancelled. There was no direct lending to the private sector. The Bank disbursed over $390 million during the period and provided $150 million in net flows, considerably more than the World Bank or IMF. The Bank also participated in the original HIPC initiative providing almost $52 million in debt relief and is scheduled to provide an additional $64 million in the enhanced HIPC. Bank gross disbursements averaged over 5% of GDP and 12% of public sector expenditures and disbursements on investment loans accounted for about 25% of the
public sector investment programme.  These monies are in US dollars.

Presidents Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo turned around the economy
Conversely, after the valiant efforts of former presidents Dr. Cheddi Jagan and Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo at debt reduction and/or wipe out, the report states: “There has been a considerable amount of external assistance under successive, annual IMF programmes, IDA and IDB investment and adjustment credits, bilateral aid, three Paris Club rescheduling arrangements during 1991-95, a stock of debt operation on Naples terms in May 1996, the original HIPC debt relief and in 2002 the anticipated enhanced HIPC debt relief.
“There was considerable progress in restoring macroeconomic stability, liberalising the exchange rate and the economy, as well as strengthening the financial sector, improving the environment for the private sector (over 60% of previous government-owned assets including banks, electricity, the telephone company and other industries have been privatised), improving the performance of the agriculture sector and rehabilitating infrastructure. The size of the civil service was reduced by one third since 1993. Real GDP growth averaged over 6% per year during 1991-97 before suffering a setback in 1998 and inflation has been kept low. Political disturbances, El Niño drought and La Niña flooding conditions and lower export prices for lumber, rice, sugar and gold in 1998 slowed economic performance, causing government revenues to decline sharply and a depreciation in the nominal exchange rate. Since 1998, growth has been volatile, alternating between positive and negative.
The IDB played a major role in Guyana for much of the period, emerging as the largest institutional lender.

Greenidge’s lies debunked
In effect, the Hoyte administration had been forced by the IDB, through very harsh conditionalities imposed on the Guyanese people, to accept the ERP in a bid to swing around the economy.  One of the primary conditions was holding free and fair elections after decades of rigging.  This paved the way for a PPP/C victory and consequential turnaround of the economy, because the credibility of Dr. Cheddi Jagan had once again restored national credibility and acceptance by the International Financial Institutions,
So Greenidge has proven himself to be a consummate charlatan with his call for government to increase public sector wages by 20%.
Since 2006, there have been annual retroactive increases and payouts to public servants, and salaries of public sector employees have increased by at least 50%.
Kaieteur News columnist, Peeping Tom, criticised PPP/C members for ranging outside of their mandated remit in rebutting opposition members; but it is a mark of the ability of the PPP/C brigade, especially the young lions – following in the footsteps of their spiritual mentor Dr. Jagan- that at any given time they can provide data and statistics of the various sectors in the country that they serve, as has been so ably proven by all the PPP/C presenters, especially debate initiator, Minister Irfaan Ali,