By Imran Khan

THE Bharrat Jagdeo regime will be remembered — apart from the rampant crime —  as a period of devious political patronage that saw him decide which of his loyal subjects should be rewarded and which ones punished.

This extended from the lowly sugar worker up to the country’s corporate boardrooms. It resulted in the loss of billions of dollars in tax revenue and led to a distrust of government as a force for good, that this current coalition has done much to restore.

The Workers
Jagdeo for all his current talk about public servants deserving decent salaries, never gave them a proper salary increase. 5% to 8% was his preferred gift, handed down from on high days before Christmas. (As a cheap election gimmick, Jagdeo also approved across-the-board increases in salaries for all government employees retroactive to January 2011, and payable a few days before the 2011 election)

Instead, as was the case with the teachers, he created various intangible benefits such as annual clothing allowances and limited duty-free concessions for cars, that could be taken away or renegotiated at any time. This government has given genuine increases in salaries in order to put money in the workers’ pockets. As such, it did not wait until Budget 2016, but gave an immediate 26% increase to lowest paid public servants only three months after entering office and subsequently increased salaries to the extent that public servants have received a 50% increase in just three years. The recent multi-year agreement with teachers with substantial increases came out of a strained process indeed; but it also showed that the government has created the political space for trade union activism after decades of having a boot heel on their necks.

Amerindians         
Arguably no other group was treated as shabbily by Jagdeo as Guyana’s indigenous communities. This culminated in what was a naked vote-buying operation ahead of the 2011 election. A Commonwealth Observer report stated that “opposition parties accused the government of expedient timing and the misuse of public funds by handing out GUY$20,000 each to hundreds of Lethem residents from the PPP/C?s Region Nine headquarters.” The dismissive, paternalistic attitude towards Amerindians can be seen in two incidents: one where first Nigel Dharamlall, the then permanent secretary of the Amerindian Affairs Ministry was recorded threatening to bar access to his office and withhold stipends from Amerindian leaders. And secondly, where the country’s own president Donald Ramotar was caught on tape telling a young Amerindian man in Aishalton that if Jagdeo had “been here, he might have slap you, cause you stupid.”

In contrast, this government has taken a genuine and respectful approach to development in the hinterland regions, including the provision of healthcare, infrastructural and educational facilities and several modern radio stations.

Rice and sugar used as vehicles to transfer state funds

The Petro-Caribe rice deal, on the face of it, was a win-win for Guyana: cheaply financed petroleum products paid for by high-priced rice. Indeed, it made many favoured millers fabulously wealthy, but it was also a creation of debt that transferred billions to the rice sector. The accumulated debt amounted to US$184M as of December 2014. Also, Guyanese commuters and drivers did not benefit from cheaper fuel at the pump as could have been the case. Instead, as prices for fuel dropped, the government raised the excise tax, thus passing on none of the savings to the average Guyanese. The use of the Guyana Rice Development Board to apportion rice contracts to Venezuela among millers was an opaque form of political patronage open to influence and corruption.

The industry has weathered the exit of what was always a tenuous agreement with a neighbour coveting two thirds of our land, and thanks to the efforts of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in less than a calendar year, Mexico has purchased more than 174,875 tonnes of Guyana’s paddy. Compared to the first half of 2017, total volume of exports reached 290,000 tonnes, a 43% increase, earning the country G$23.2BILLION, as compared to G$16.1BILLION.

The sugar industry is the most blatant example of the abuse of state resources for political gain. Through his own blunders, Jagdeo personally botched the Skeldon sugar project so badly that it sent GuySuCo into a financial tailspin. Howeve, instead of having the courage to fix an industry already declining due to mismanagement and external factors, he took a cowardly approach and simply used taxpayers’ funds to put the industry on life support.

The effect was a transfer of treasury funds, just from 2015 to the present of $32B or $45,000 for every man, woman and child in Guyana. This government is fixing the industry through rationalisation, right-sizing and a goal to create a corporation that can produce sugar sustainably. It may not be popular with everyone, but that is fit and proper leadership and governance.
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Corporate welfare
Corporations also fell in and out of favour with Pharaoh Jagdeo. In favour always was Bobby Ramroop, whose Queens Atlantic II was given dubious tax concessions for its site in Ruimveldt (is it actually paying the $45M per year in rent for the 20 acres?), that had to be hurriedly made legal via legislation in Parliament. This was the tip of the iceberg: Mr. Geoff DaSilva, a long-time PPP member as head of GoInvest and thus a gatekeeper boasted that the agency facilitated investment projects of 285 companies, totalling US$835M between 2002 and 2008 with 1006 concessions in the form of duty-free concessions for machinery, equipment, vehicles and furnishings. Many of these projects ended up being empty promises. Mirages.

GRA Chief Godfrey Statia has been reeling in these and subsequent concessions. He told Demerara Waves that those found to be abusing concessions granted by government, as incentives primarily towards business ventures, if caught, will now have to pay up the applicable taxes that were waived by the Guyana Revenue Authority, or have those concession withdrawn or seized altogether.
“A number of Forensic Audit Reports into state agencies—ordered by the David Granger administration—found numerous loopholes, discrepancies and instances of abuse of concessions granted by government to the tune of billions of dollars.”

And other cronies
Land was handed out like gifts to friends and family. Odinga Lumumba was sold a tract of land on Mandela Avenue for $1.5M and sold it four years later for $38M. Even criminals got into the action: Roger Khan, when not having his goons kill young Guyanese and exporting drugs, was building houses at an East Bank scheme, while the Guyana Forestry Commission granted a State Forest Exploratory Permit for a large tract of land in Guyana’s interior to Aurelius Inc., a company controlled by Khan.
A convicted real estate fraudster, Ed Ahmad, was sold GuySuco land at Leonora on the cheap under the pretence of setting up a woodworking facility. Pass by there today and see what has come of it. Bush.

A radio licence was bestowed upon Jagdeo’s niece Kamini Persaud, husband of then Minister Robert Persaud, with which they did nothing for years and then turned around and sold to a Trinidad company.  House lots by the sea to those in favour; withholding of advertising in an attempt to silence Stabroek News; well paid jobs for the sons and daughters of party apparatchiks; the former Chief Executive Officer of Guyana Power and Light, Bharat Dindyal, being paid an annual salary of over $73M. We could go on and on…At every turn, Jagdeo in his malicious and petty practices schemed to please his supporters and punish his enemies. It was a despotic rule. This government will ensure we create a new Guyana from the ruins of his kingdom.