— Former President Jagdeo
FORMER President, Bharrat Jagdeo has flayed the Opposition for their recent budget cuts, which he has deemed “pure vindictiveness”. Jagdeo has also recognised the valiant efforts being made by Head of State, President Donald Ramotar as he leads the country into continued progress in very difficult circumstances.
The combined opposition parliamentary parties demolished the 2012 national budget by cutting almost $21B from crucial areas of development, including more than $18B in projects under the country’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
Jagdeo made his remarks last Friday at the official opening of the new Head Office Building of the New Building Society Limited (NBS) in Georgetown, where he said that, for the past several months, he has seen the valiant efforts of President Donald Ramotar as he struggled to lead the country into continued progress in very difficult circumstances.
“And those circumstances sometimes need to be put into perspective,” the former Head of State pointed out.
“Today, in this country, we have a stable, growing financial system that is supporting real sector growth and expansion of real sector activity. It is supporting social capital formation, it is supporting people’s dreams of acquiring their own homes, and that is not something that happens by chance,” he noted.
In this regard, Jagdeo referred particularly to the turmoil being experienced in the developed economies of the world.
“That is happening at a time when this small, developing country has a stable financial system, has experienced growth in the last six years, and has come from a period when it was one of the basket cases in the world in terms of financial management and unsustainable macroeconomic indicators,” he stressed.
He said all this points to evidence of progress even as he noted that Central Bank today has one of the highest reserve coverages for any developing country.
“All of the variables are stable largely because of what the government did on the fiscal side,” Jagdeo told the gathering.
“But this is not going to last forever if we do not continue the policy, because, for NBS to continue to expand and for the financial sector to continue to grow and support other sectors and people in their everyday activities, the economy itself has to grow; and I daresay there is an assault today, an unnecessary assault, on the things that will keep this economy growing,” he insisted.
He added, “Because it is only through a policy environment that is supportive to economic growth; it is only through infrastructural growth to support economic activities; and it is only through social capital formation — better health care, access to education etc (we) will generate growth in the long run and sustain growth.”
Jagdeo urged, “We must all, as Guyanese, understand what is happening; and we must be courageous enough to stand up and support the President as he tries to move this country forward for all the people of this country,” he urged.
He said Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh took a budget to the Parliament. “Because we have the fiscal space and greater spending in the economy generates more jobs for people, more linkages in the economy, more wealth for Guyanese across the board; and we have the fiscal space, we can spend more without affecting macro variables. So he took a budget, and the budget was truncated.”
The former Guyanese Leader noted, “Now, I can understand if you are talking about taxpayers’ money, but let’s look at some of the components that were truncated.”
He cited the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) projects, stating, “We got US$70M sitting in a bank account. It’s not a loan, it is not taxpayers money, it is a grant that we have sitting there that they said we will not get; and when we got it, they said to Norway ‘don’t give it to this country’. So the government decided to spend some of this money on buying equity in the hydro, so that the prices of electricity will be cheaper to all Guyanese and to businesses. That was cut, unconscionably cut.
“Not taxpayers’ money, not a loan, a grant that the government would have spent on trying to catalyze investment in clean energy, (which) would have had a huge impact on balance of payments,” he contended.
Next, he alluded to $500M for Amerindian communities for demarcating their lands, and also said that every village came up with a development plan, and that money that came from a grant would have gone towards helping the villages to create jobs and foster greater opportunities for young people who live in the hinterland.
“$500M to assist private sector development, small businesses, and not a word of support so far I have seen from the private sector organisations. But $500M in the budget to come again from a grant that they said we will not get, but we got to spend on helping small businesses to grow in this country. That was cut,” he reminded.
“The Chinese gave us money to buy the computers, so that 90,000 families who can’t afford it will have a computer. That was cut too,” he went on and also touched on the specialty hospital.
“It’s vindictiveness! It’s not policy led by any design, it’s pure vindictiveness,” the former president maintained.
“If we don’t spend — these are grants and soft loans — then the economy will not grow, and at some point in time people are not going to afford houses, because they are not going to have jobs; and the financial system would collapse, and NBS. If we continue with this, five years from now, (we) will not be talking about the successes that it has had today,” he insisted.
“Everything is linked (that) we do in this economy, so we should be happy that today we are making progress. When you read the economic news from around the world and see the turmoil there, we should be pleased that this country is moving forward,” he stated.
“It has a vision. Our President has outlined his vision — a vision that will take us into the future, a higher level.”
That aside, Jagdeo also congratulated the leadership and staff of NBS on the acquisition of the wonderful building.
“I am sure that by now you would all recognise that it is only through visionary leadership that such an achievement — not only in the acquisition of this building, but the growth in the society itself — could have taken place,” he noted.
Jagdeo said this visionary leadership also had to be complemented by a characteristic that is vital in Guyana today.
“…that is the will to fight for what you believe in, and I know the assault that the (New Building) Society came under, particularly when they planned to expand this Society and to take it out to rural communities and to change it (into) a more service-oriented organisation, the assault that the society came under from people who were vindictive,” he recalled.
However, he stressed, “But they persevered, they were strong, they were committed; and today, the society and much of Guyana benefit because of this. And so I hope that this leadership will continue to tread the same path.”