Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon on Monday stated that he would not endorse the 2021 National Budget as it was visionless and disconnected from the ordinary man in the country.
Harmon made these remarks during his presentation as he appeared virtually at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre for day five of the budget debates. The Opposition Leader opined that the budget is deficient and “disastrous” in many areas as there was no consultation with the opposition in its preparation.
“Mr Speaker, it is time that President (Irfaan) Ali climbs down from his horse and recognise that the only way forward for this country is by meaningful consultation,” the Opposition Leader stated, adding that after being sworn in as members of parliament he has made it clear that the opposition was willing to cooperate on many issues.
“We have reached out even in an environment where the elections results which installed the Irfaan Ali regime are the subject of two petitions before the courts,” he said.
Further, Harmon told the House that the budget is disconnected from the ordinary man and woman of the country and lacking a medium-term strategy for development for Guyana. The Opposition Leader to the cheers of his colleagues stated, “It is resurrecting failed policies and programmes and instead of a budget that provided economic empowerment to Guyanese, we have a budget which ignores large sections of the population and offers a few handouts to a few.”
He contended that the budget is designed to keep persons poor instead of being a budget that is filled with programmes to economically empower the population. The Opposition Leader expressed that the budget, like its predecessor, wreaks havoc on the economy and the pockets of the poor who he said will find that their dollar will be able to buy less.
Harmon, also told the house that young people are being ignored in the budget. “Despite the fact that the Honourable Minister of Youth, Culture and Sports boasts about having the largest budget ever, we still need to see what is inside there, where is your youth policy which will determine where this money is spent. There’s no provision for them in the budget, there’s no mechanism or programme which allows the young people to realise business ideas and initiatives to expand small businesses.”
Speaking specifically to some of the items in the budget, Harmon noted that the health sector’s budget for the year fails to provide a pathway for the country to emerge from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He mentioned that a large sum is allocated for the procurement of vaccines however there is no plan.
“The objective in this budget on COVID speaks to navigating the COVID-19 as long as it’s there and one would have expected some greater clarity on how this objective could be achieved and the sum of money stated to achieve this purpose. However what it is we were given a lump sum. There is no clear policy direction to deal with COVID.” He compared that allocation to the one made in last year’s budget.
He also argued that there is no serious plan as it relates to vaccines as the shots projected cannot cover even half of the population. To this end, Harmon went on to say that the bulk of vaccines which Guyana is set to receive takes no account of the odd circumstances of the country’s Indigenous regions and Indigenous peoples and that the minister of health should pay specific attention to that issue.
The reality of the situation, he said, calls for a more well-articulated plan with wider stakeholder participation as the new reliance on vaccines has diminished the enthusiasm for testing and tracing in the country. “We seem to be in a holding pattern and this can have negative consequences of spreading rather than containing the virus.”
“Budget 2021 ought to have been focused on lifting people out of poverty and providing them with the good life, what we have gotten instead is the opposite. Budgets in the past have been criticised for lacking vision but this budget takes the cake in that regard,” Harmon was quoted as saying.
And in addition to public servants getting a zero increase in salaries, he noted that the opposition has called for a minimum ten per cent increase across the board for all public servants and expressed the hope that the finance minister would make that announcement soon.
“Our frontline workers in the health sector have been left empty handed with nothing to show – no reward or recognition for the hard work over the past year. During the devastating pandemic, they have worked beyond the call of duty [yet] this budget 2020 does not offer them anything – it is an insult,” Harmon remarked, adding, “Our frontline workers and public servants must feel an emptiness in the heart and must be wondering whether they should stay in the profession.”
The Opposition Leader went on to criticise the budgetary allocation to the sugar industry saying that billions of dollars have been set aside to produce sugar above the world market price. As he continued on the budgetary allocation to the sugar industry, Harmon stated that the current agriculture minister has been critical of the opposition’s scrutiny of the allocations made to GuySuCo. “While we are on the subject of the mismanagement of public resources let us again address the issue of $2 billion more for GuySuCo. This money, without the proper plan to restructure the industry, will go up in smoke, just the same as the 7 billion we spent on GuySuCo in the last budget,” Harmon argued.
During his presentation he quoted former president Donald Ramotar on the topic of restructuring the sugar industry. “I want you to listen to the words of former President Ramotar, He said, ‘The industry needs to be restructured, to be reorganised as much as it needs financial input at this stage, not to reorganise this could end up just throwing money at the problem without tangible results.’” Harmon reiterated that they should not keep financing GuySuCo without appropriate reform plans and that the bulk of that allocation is going toward mismanagement and nepotism in the industry.
He also pondered, “Here is another member of the PPP laying out their playbook for sugar, so when Guyanese ask why sugar has failed perhaps a better question is, did the PPP ever intend for sugar to succeed?”
The Opposition Leader stated that all this would cause persons to question the true purpose of everything that is in the budget and the reason behind every line item placed in it. “So there’s not plan for GuySuCo but we’re pumping money into it. There is no vision for this country that has budgetary allocations gone to it so why are we spending all this money?”
