As a member of the opposition it is not my duty to massage the ego of the Hon. Finance Minister but to tell him like it is – that in a true democracy the people’s views matter. I get the impression that this reality offends rather than informs. The first point I need to make is that the Hon. Finance Minister,, in holding down the House for some 3 hours, pushed the tolerance of MPs on this side when he chose to include extensive PR type commentary in his budget presentation – this is clearly unnecessary for elucidating the true intent of the budget. I therefore urge him to desist from this practice.

From all appearances, I get the impression that the Budget has nothing to do with the necessities of a development strategy that involves the nation as a whole. It has nothing to do with addressing the desire of the Guyanese people to pull themselves out of the poverty trap in which they have been placed. It has nothing to do with addressing the social & economic ills plaguing Guyana; or, indeed, the political conundrum retarding economic growth, chasing investors and adversely impacting political stability in the country.

What the 2011 Budget does, is patently provide continued opportunity for this administration to engage in massive spending in continuation of the practice of giving out largesse strategically in seeking to guarantee the incumbent’s political survival. So I predict, that in this year dedicated to the descendants of Africans, we will witness greater marginalisation of our people of all races, new depths of maladministration and corruption in the view of international corruption perception assessments. Evidence of this possibility has already been noted by my Honourable colleague Khemraj Ramjattan. Another reference to this malady has also been made in relation to the costs budgeted for the execution of the Amerindian land demarcation exercises earmarked for this year.

In an astute assessment of this year’s Budget, the Ram & McRae ‘Budget focus’ points out an extremely important observation made by attorney-at-law Dr. Arif Bulkan. He observed that the 2006 the Amerindian Act greatly simplifies the demarcation process thereby causing ‘red flags’ to be raised when the large sums allocated for this exercise is considered. This, I opine is merely the tip of the iceberg, given that capital expenditure is projected to increase by 33% to $62Bn this year.

Where are the Jobs?

As I searched the budget for evidence of job creation, I found the lack of jobs to be one of the biggest failures of this Administration to respond to the cry of the people for jobs. According to Hon Minister Nadir, his agency alone found jobs for some 6,ooo persons, so ipso facto unemployment solved. My experience tells me differently, as I move around the country meeting qualified people who are actively searching for jobs. 

For those within the ranks of the unemployed without a skill, the AFC recommends upgrading Technical schools to provide vocational training in such areas as carpentry, computer repair, hospitality management, etc. As well as create hinterland jobs by revitalising the peanut and cashew industry in Reg. 9 for example. The point has to be made is that it is a crying shame that for 19 years the incumbent Govt has refused to commission a study to determine the level of unemployment prevailing in the country. Now we are expected to take seriously the intention to conduct a Labour Market Information exercise by the Ministry of Labour who’s Minister has become the main bulwark for this government’s economic policies. Such an exercise is doomed to encounter serious credibility issues.

Contract Workers

It would be remiss of me not to comment on the Govt’s practice of abusing the contract workers’ facility. To put it bluntly the situation created by this Admin is nothing but scandalous! Here is why. It spawns unfair treatment of workers, masks the payment of huge salaries to favoured friends of the Govt by putting them in the same basket of a large number of small salaried workers and, most importantly, undermines the Public Service system. As a result, grave injustices now exist in the Public Service. Take for instance the situation where a contract worker of one year could now earn more than a public servant with many years service. In addition, a contract worker receives every 6 months a gratuity at the rate of 22 ½ % of his/her salary. Developing as well is the situation where some contract workers have been in the system long enough to attain the age of retirement and now have expectations of receiving a pension as well. This begs the question – how could this Administration expect to achieve quality governance when they have systematically destroyed the Public Service?

On the question of Governance/Transparency/Accountability

The Fin. Minister’s description of this process as contained on pg 53 of his presentation and the remarks made last evening by Hon. Minister Webster referred to some fictitious country of which I have no knowledge. Imagine they both made copious references about the enhanced democratic governance this Administration has created! Imagine telling us that they have adopted principles of inclusivity, when large sections of our society continue to express feelings of exclusion, describe their experiences of discrimination and being denied equal treatment and equal opportunity in their professions and businesses! How could members on that side of the House speak so brazenly about good governance when they’ve been dilly dallying for a decade on establishing the Public Procurement Commission, the Human Rights Commission and their attendant Tribunals? How could the Hon. Min. Finance talk so boldly about transparency & accountability when he was unable to explain to this House why a financial Order issued in his name was made to increase the salary of the CJ to the same level of the Chancellor who is head of the judiciary?

Real democracy could only be attained when there is no need for questions like these to be asked. Real democracy could only be attained when a programme is devised to devolve power to the people, restore village government and hold Local Govt elections. Real democracy could only prevail when systems are put in place to allow the Judiciary and this National Assembly to be financially independent of the government. Until then, this Administration gets a poor rating from me on the quality of governance they’ve spawned. While I’m on this subject, it is apposite to note the discriminatory TAX treatment introduced in the budget for the Telecommunication sector because it provides evidence of corporate discrimination –

and I make this point having been a loud critic of this sector over the years.

Health

I would have been enamoured with the Govt’s budgetary plans for the health sector had I not known of heart wrenching experiences of negligence in the public health system as described last evening by the Hon. Member from Linden. In reviewing the Finance Minister’s comments about the public Health services I observed one glaring and crucial omission in the plans for the health sector – the absence of a strategy to retain the large numbers of doctors, nurses and other health workers being trained at a great cost to the Treasury; and upon which the improvement in all areas of the health sector rests. In view of the recent maternity deaths and consumer best practices around the world, I strongly recommend a patients’ bill of rights be introduced to aid in curtailing the high levels of negligence being witnessed in the public health system.   

Power Generation

I’m pleased to learn that 1,432 new households and 4 hinterland schools have been provided with electricity. I’m also pleased that a number of faulty meters have been replaced. However, I am disappointed that in this its 19th year the Administration is still unable to move beyond recognising that for the private sector to become competitive and for the citizenry to become more productive they all require an adequate, reliable and affordable power supply. Eureka!

Old Age Pension

It is stated on page 60 of the Finance Minister’s presentation that 42, 000 pensioners who receive old age pensions monthly stand to benefit from a 14% increase. According to the data provided in this House by the Ministry of Human Services on the number of pensioners receiving Old Age Pensions over the period 2002-2009 some major discrepancies have surfaced which I now bring to the attention of the House.

An analysis of the rate of change noted in the number of persons in receipt of Old Age Pensions over the period reveals a rather peculiar phenomenon. Over the period 2002 to 2006, the number of pensioners was virtually static (33,000 to 34,000 individuals). However, between 2007 and 2009 the numbers increased by approximately 30%.

The situation is further complicated as a result of revelations that came out from a Performance/Value for Money Audit undertaken by the Auditor General for the period January 2008 to 30 September 2009. While a number of serious deficiencies were discovered and appropriate recommendations made to improve the system, it is noteworthy that the audit also determined that approximately 24 percent of persons 65 years and older were not recorded in the Ministry’s database and were, therefore not in receipt of Old Age Pensions.

The implications of these revelations are twofold:-

1. An increase in the population of Old Age Pensioners by approximately 30% over a three year period implies that the life expectancy in Guyana has increased by a corresponding percentage over the same period. Therefore, assuming a life expectancy in Guyana was 70 years in 2006, this would now have improved by some 21 years to 91, which is probably among the highest in the world. Alternately, it would also mean that the population of Guyana would have increased by a similar percentage – both scenarios being unlikely bearing in mind the country’s high emigration rate. It is interesting to note that in the recently circulated document to this parliament by the Minister of Human Services and Social Security, the life expectancy rate for Guyana is listed as 63 years for males and 69 years for females – an approximate average life expectancy of just 66 years even less than was assumed in my analysis and brining into even further doubt the rapid increase of persons over the age of 65.
2. The fact that only 76% of persons 65 years and older are in receipt of Old Age Pensions also indicates that in 2002  the pensions of approximately 8,000 persons of the 32,030 identified by the Census in that age group, were being diverted elsewhere, and this number has increased exponentially since 2006. The financial ramifications are extremely troubling. This indicates a monthly difference of over 68 million dollars and an annual difference in excess of 824 million dollars that appears to have been diverted from the system.

In closing, the number of ‘phantom’ pensioners would have increased to 17,640 (44,000 – 26,360) the monthly hemorrhage from the Old Age Pension fund would, therefore, be over $116 million or $1.3 billion annually. It is necessary to state that, had the Auditor General in his review of the Old Age Pension Programme taken into consideration the census figures rather than rely solely on the figures presented by the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, this situation would have been properly investigated. I am prepared to make this study available to him if he so desires.

SVH

January 2011

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