APPROVING the 2013 Budget can be considered as part of the People’s National Congress (PNC) repaying its debt to society under the umbrella of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). This is the conviction of former Labour and Tourism Minister, Manzoor Nadir, as he wrapped up this past week of budget debates by thoroughly rubbishing the party that had held the reins of power for 28 years prior to the 1992 general elections. Nadir took aim at APNU Shadow Finance Minister, Carl Greenidge, who had also served as substantive Finance Minister in the late Desmond Hoyte government.
The Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament, in his presentation to the 2013 debates, sought to remind the House that the ruling party “inherited a lot of destruction from the PNC.”

The Former Minister said that Greenidge in his time at the helm of the Finance Ministry, presided over numerous failed policies, and now “has the temerity to criticise this government.”
He said Greenidge had plunged thousands of persons in the country into extreme and immediate poverty when he had devalued the Guyana Currency by ‘10 to 1.’

Nadir told the House that the current administration, within a matter of two decades after taking office, had managed to move the nation’s per capita income from US$300 to US$3000.

He rebutted Shadow Human Services Minister, Volda Lawrence, who had criticised the current standard of living in Guyana, particularly among children, and had indicated that there was significant malnutrition currently existing, particularly among the very young. Nadir fired back, saying he remembered distinctly, that malnutrition rates were significantly higher under the helm of the PNC.

“I remember when you travelled you used to see the bronze hair, the moon face and the big belly,” said Nadir as he gave his recollection of high malnutrition rates in Guyana under the PNC administration.

Nadir said while he is not versed in medicine, he is well acquainted with the physical signs of malnutrition.  And according to the statistics, he said there was a 73 per cent rate of malnutrition among children under the age of five at the time.
Nadir also took aim at the much vaunted National Service, at which point both Greenidge and Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, David Granger were forced to seek an intervention.

The Former Labour Minister drew reference to Greenidge’s presentation and sought to point out that he had recommended policies along the lines of the National Service. Greenidge, a former Finance Minister under the PNC government, quickly rose to his feet on a point of order and immediately distanced himself from the establishment of the Guyana National Service.
“I had nothing to do with the establishment of the National Service. I was not even in the country,” said Greenidge.
Nadir further told the House that the National Service was a burden on the public treasury.
According to Nadir, it was an agency that had just about 2000 persons in its employ and managed to train only about 200 persons annually.

Brigadier (rtd) David Granger, who serves as the elected leader of the parliamentary opposition, immediately challenged this assertion, calling for the source of the information, whereupon Nadir announced: “the Government of Guyana.”

He said the information was sourced from the Ministry that had held responsibility for the National Service at the time.
Nadir also took aim at APNU’s Joe Harmon, who, in an earlier presentation, had lambasted the administration for what he called inadequate allocations and lack of long-term planning regarding infrastructure developments. Harmon had suggested that most of the flagship projects were ill-conceived, with aspects still shrouded in secrecy and lacking the critical element of a ‘buy in’ by the public.

The APNU Parliamentarian called on the administration to make public all of the documentation surrounding the various projects, and said that he would like to see them debated in the House as against in closed-door briefings.
Nadir, in response, said Harmon spoke of long-term infrastructure vision, “but we have it under the PPP.”
Nadir reminded that the APNU representative was in loud praise of the recent upgrade and expansion of the now Ogle International Airport.

The former Labour Minister reminded that the initiative was a public/private partnership that did not just emerge from thin air, but rather, the agreement had been inked since 2001.

The money accounted for from the treasury, he said, came from the European Union, and did not go to any private consortium. “It came to the people of Guyana.”
Turning his attention to the disparities of skill availability on the local market, the former Labour Minister immediately addressed the construction of the Marriott Hotel and the Amaila Falls hydro electric project, saying he has been paying attention to the public lamentations, but it must be known that the “Marriott didn’t come here because of the Chinese.”

He said construction of a Marriott Hotel in Guyana is as a result of years of intense negotiations. At the time, he said, the Marriott was the biggest name in the hotel industry worldwide when its vice president visited Guyana in 2005 and commenced the negotiations for the construction of a Marriott branded hotel in Guyana.

Nadir also said that, at the time, he was at the Board of Industrial Training when investors for both the Marriott and the Amaila Falls project had approached the agency with a list of skills that it had required for the projects, and history has recorded the end result, given the unavailability of the necessary skills locally.