CABINET Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon has stated that because of work done by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration in stabilising and sustaining a growing economy, Guyanese have been able to enjoy several welfare interventions.During an interview with Director of the Government Information Agency, Neaz Subhan on the National Communications Network (NCN), on Sunday, Dr. Luncheon said that many of the interventions have been taken for granted, but these are different elements of welfare practices that occupy much of the Government’s attention.
“It is actually a response to social reality, and in many developing countries, and Guyana is no different, the social reality harkens on the past.”
The Cabinet Secretary stated that Guyana’s current day social reality has changed from what it was before 1992.  “(In) 2015, Guyana’s social reality is quite different from what it was at the time of emancipation … or even at the time of independence, but still they are lasting …”
He said poverty and the kind of social ills warrant and legitimise the interventions that are captured in the rubric of welfare interventions.
While noting that in today’s society there is the reality, which he blames on the past, he did not shy away from the fact that there may still be current factors contributing.  “I’m not saying that contributions are not currently being made, but fundamentally it is a persistence of what we inherited, what we have not yet adequately built with, but is our social reality today, and that is what legitimises.”
Dr Luncheon added that “… any caring government would have great difficulty if it does not embark on programmes … aggressive programmes to deal with those aspects of the social reality.”
Speaking of some of the social realities which face the society, Dr. Luncheon said that one simply needs to examine poverty and its origin, its perpetuations, and the culture of poverty and what it breeds. The Cabinet Secretary said Guyana’s economy caters more for the interests that have been preserved in the economy than those that deal with the modern demands of the people and the society.
Notwithstanding all this, Dr. Luncheon said that there is no question that when it comes to welfare, the state of the country’s economy therefore matters.
“If your economy has grown at a good clip, there exists lesser chance that you will not have enough money to make aggressive interventions in implementing welfare interventions; if economic growth is anemic or in the reversal and the growth of the economy is constrained like what happened in the financial crisis in 2008.”
Noting the importance of a stable economy in rolling out welfare interventions, Dr. Luncheon said a country’s social policy also depends on tax revenue collection, the wealth that a growing economy creates.
He added that it would then be fair to say that it is not common practice for any government to offer welfare interventions that are not supported by a buoyant economy.
“In other words, were I to be a government that is fundamentally attracted to economic principles and development along sustainable levels, I would have a difficulty in offering welfare interventions that I can’t sustain.”
To this end, he added that while the needs may very well exist, and may be carefully and authentically demonstrated, the question that should be asked is whether the interventions can be sustained.
Citing an example of one such intervention, which the PPP/C administration has been able to sustain over the years, Dr. Luncheon pointed to the non-contributory old age pension.
“Now if you go back to where we were in 1992 and go back to today and look at the difference at what was offered then and what is being offered now, this is because the economy today could sustain the payment of over $13,000 a month non-contributory to Guyanese over 65 (years).”
While acknowledging that after assuming office in 1992 it was no easy task to recreate wealth and the country’s social fabric at large, there is still more to be done; “But in 1992 we had the zeal and the conviction and the ideological clarity of what needed to be done, and I must say that with the support of external and internal stakeholders, we were able to turn the situation around.”
He noted that from the inception, social policies were high on the agenda of the PPP/C administration.
“The economy had to be attended to … it had to grow … one had to collect revenue and from the wealth that was being recreated and properly redistributed, and that is why the modicum of successes that we have had in addressing welfare and welfare interventions.”
Further, the Cabinet Secretary said that many of the interventions were also made possible by constitutional provisions that speak to the welfare orientation of the society.
“…The government imposes on the administration, the executive, certain norms that address welfare, so yes, we have been better at instituting that constitutional provision.”
He said when it comes to the law, there have been crafted in almost every sector, more particular in the social sector, legislative provisions that secure the state’s commitment to these welfare interventions.
“So what we have brought together is an amalgam; you have constitution, the law and the executive, all collaborating in ensuring that what is done in terms of intervention is indeed appropriate and is suitable, responsive to the situation that actually existed at the time an intervention is made.”
Even more evident that the country’s social welfare is being catered to is the yearly budgetary allocations of which the social sector takes the largest chunk.

(GINA)