President reiterates commitment to public servants wage hike

President Bharrat Jagdeo reiterated his commitment to increasing wages for public servants at the PYARG award ceremony hosted two Saturdays ago.

According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release the president had first made this commitment during an interview with the National Communications Network on July 21. In his address to youth at the President’s Youth Award Republic of Guyana (PYARG) ceremony, Jagdeo lauded them for their diligent work remarking that “such an accomplishment serves as a valuable reminder about planning for the future.” He said too, “If we don’t plan for that future, we would never be able to deal with the challenges that inevitably come up along the road; challenges that would have severe consequences for our development.”

He said the problems which Guyana’s economy faced in the past were as a result of the previous generation’s inability to shift spending power when the economy was declining. This, he said, resulted in an economy where consumption far outweighed spending power and consequently forced the borrowing of money to cushion the effects. “This generation is repaying that debt. We can’t leave that future to others for you. So I say to you, get involved in the debate about defining where we want to take the country; it’s your country; it’s your future,” he said.

In the Caribbean, the global economic recession has resulted in the loss of about 60% of Jamaica’s merchandise exports; Dominica was forced to take an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund and Antigua and Barbuda has lost over 1,000 jobs from the fallout of the Stanford debacle. The crisis has also severely affected tourism and financial services which are significant revenue earners and job providers in the Caribbean.

While in Guyana the real sector was affected with the fall in global demand for export commodities, the president said Guyana has stayed the course and “was able to achieve what the recession had made it impossible for other economies to accomplish.” He said many persons were given resources to build houses, there was no cut in expenditure and more is being spent on the country’s basic social services. According to the president, Guyana’s economy showed growth in instances when most other countries in the Caribbean were in the negative.

“Many countries in the Caribbean can’t pay wages in the public service they have frozen wages for four years. Some can’t pay their debts, [whereas in Guyana] this year there will be a wage increase for public servants,” Jagdeo said, adding that this feat can be attributed to the hard work over the past years to build the foundations to address the recession by creating the fiscal space and repaying debt.