Producing a credible analysis of a national budget is an exhaustive exercise spanning multiple sectors of an economy while attempting to retain the understanding of readers from diverse backgrounds. Those familiar with my writing know that as a matter of principle, I am more concerned about what the beast does, versus what it says, stretching this into every sphere of its activities. This exposes the true nature of its intentions, and exposes trends about which sound conclusions can be drawn with a fair degree of accuracy. Further, I have been selective to support my conclusions, versus attempting a comprehensive evaluation.
I wish to first observe that the PPP administration’s stance on managing the affairs of the nation smacks of criminality, a betrayal of its responsibility to manage our natural in our best interests, and is something which we as a people will have to hold ourselves accountable should we allow them to continue in office after the upcoming elections. This is based on its trenchant and brazen attempt to bully the nation in respect of its non-renegotiation of the 2016 PSA which based on my estimates show that Guyana has conceded approximately US$2.3 billion to date, with an additional US$28 billion to US$50 billion we will be forfeiting over the life of our oil reserves should the present contract remain enforced.
The 2025 budget of US$6.5 billion (US$1:G$208) which included US$2.5 billion siphoned off from our Natural Resource Fund pales in comparison to what we would be losing with the 2016 Agreement. The administration of the PPP has never offered to rebut the figures or even acknowledge that Guyana would indeed be at such a great loss, except to hold firm to its ‘no renegotiation’ position which is unacceptable by any measure, not to mention their recalcitrant unwillingness to have the matter get the benefit of a referendum so that they could do the will of the people.
I have maintained that failure in governance on the scale we are witnessing at the hands of the PPP scuttles the grandest, most well-meaning budget as the PPP professes the 2025 Budget to be. My biggest complaint has and remains that our president finds it fit and prudent to have one person, his first vice-president, responsible for all aspects of our oil resources even as he and the entire nation is well aware of the corruption in which first vice-president has been found to been managing on a grand scale that was exposed by Vice News a few years ago. The corruption escapades of the past are sure enough basis to be concerned that mechanisms for siphoning off taxpayers’ money have become more refined and integrated into prevailing governance systems.
The administration has withdrawn massive amounts of money from our oil revenues, with the total inclusive of the amounts in the 2025 Budget amounting to US$5.7 billion to date, with a 2025 closing balance of US$3.2 billion. This it seems just to project the image that Guyana is in the big league and Guyanese are rich and wealthy. Based on public opinion, all of this bloated spending amounts to a waste of taxpayers’ money as even after four years in office poverty is still endemic, the middle class struggle under the weight of depressed incomes and debt as they grapple with mortgage and vehicle loan payments, with the only evidence of contentment coming from those benefitting from the hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts every year. Why is it that such large segments of the population feel they have been left behind? The obvious answer is, because they are, and will be, under the administration of the PPP.
To guarantee its win at the upcoming 2025 Elections, the PPP government has jumped overboard, projecting to borrowing an additional G$300 billion from abroad, the proportion of this money remaining here a matter of concern for the Bank of Guyana as it continues to battle the inflationary effects of the PPP’s spending. Government has devised a cat-and-mouse strategy of dealing with its now entrenched, gargantuan spending habits. As it continues its explosive spending program financed by external borrowing alongside the destruction of our oil wealth on programs which realize questionable welfare gains for the poor, it has made containing inflation a big focus, as for the last three years over which it spent US$3.2 billion or G$665 billion from our wealth fund, the bank of Guyana issued a total of $392 billion in treasury bills, often used to mop up the excess liquidity created by government’s wanton spending. It is a virtual guarantee that this will be the same going forward with the PPP in office.
The benefit of paying attention to government’s attitude to spending on programs to mitigate poverty in specific sections of the population becomes meaningful when considering its treatment of in excess of sixty thousand pensioners, the differently able and other distressed segments of our society. Classified under Support for the Vulnerable, Government proposed a $5,000 increase in Old Age Pension from $36,000 to $41,000 per month, while public assistance to persons in dire need will benefit by another $3,000, to $22,000 per month. These are amounts the PPP administration considers that economy’s most vulnerable persons can get by on every month. By contrast, the government spent $15.5 billion last year to purchase votes in the sugar industry even as sugar production collapsed to around forty-seven thousand tons at the close of the year. It is also satisfied with the transportation arrangements it has in place for the North West, Bartica and a few of the other outlying communities desperately in need of a more robust transportation network to underpin economic growth in these communities. As the word ‘corruption’ has been banned from parliament, ‘quality education’ should be struck from the vocabulary of the PPP. Approximately $5.4 billion was spent on infrastructure in sports in 2024. If you can’t feel the love, it’s not there.
The Democratic National Congress completed and made available a summary of its policy initiatives it is offering Guyanese at the 2025 Elections. These are as follows, and include a few I considered opportune and appropriate to share here:
Renegotiate the 2016 PSA. This will immediately realize gains of between US$25 billion and US$49.7 billion. Part of these gains will be used directly in our measures to eliminate poverty below.
- Negotiate with unions for an across-the-board adjustment for public servants. Substantially increase the salaries of nursery, primary and secondary school teachers and lecturers, and ensure that every school is on par with Queens College.
- Increase Old Age Pension benefits to $100,000/mth.
- Increase social assistance to the differently able to $80,000/mth.
- Poverty Alleviation – Propose a $60,000-$80,000 poverty safety net to ensure individuals and families are adequately nourished and clothed for school and work.
- Unleashing Guyana’s Potential – Sit with representative business organizations to address bottlenecks to growth and expansion. The DNC intends to mobilize resources across all economic sectors to increase exports, personal incomes, and international reserves.
- Secure international consultants to manage our natural resources and negotiate better contracts for Guyanese.
- Agriculture – The Government of the DNC will legalize investment and trade in cannabis sativa to generate increased incomes for small farmers via exports. We will increase investment in the poultry sector to lower costs and increase output. We will also sit with help farmers to resolve problems related to gaining access to export markets.
- Invest in Our Transport Infrastrastructure – Discuss proposals with regional and remote communities on delivering adequate transportation infrastructure to support economic development in their communities.
- Taxes & Duties on Vehicles – Discuss measures to reduce and ultimately eliminate the excessive, exorbitant and arcane duty and excise tax system on imported vehicles.
- Propose bridging the major islands in the Essequibo River, to somewhere around the Supeenam area.
- Support research and development at the University of Guyana and other public tertiary institutions to advance Guyana’s position in the Services Sector globally with special emphasis on software development, while strengthening our engineering and industrial technology sectors locally.
- Reform our education system to raise the pass rate of our children by raising the salaries of our teachers, particularly kinder-garden and primary school teachers, and building additional schools to reduce the number of students per class to 20.
- Institute a flat tax for businesses, thereby allowing commercial organizations to pay better wages to their workers.
- Enact unemployment insurance legislation to benefit the unemployed.
- Allocate between Two and Ten percent of our budget to financing new businesses, creating new jobs and raising national output.
- Strengthen governance systems in the public service to save tens of billions of dollars by ending the endemic system of corruption in the PPP.
- Sit with GAWU to work out strategies for compensating sugar workers. These include one-off payments, distribution of five to 20 acres of land to sugar workers along with financial aid and infrastructural support for agricultural activities. Better severance package for workers and support for the economic restructuring of their communities.
- Athletes, other sports persons and coaches will be granted contracts with salaries so they can pursue their disciplines on a full time basis!
- Allocate more financial resources for Amerindians and facilitate address of their concerns.
- Issue FREE house-lots to poor individuals and families.
- Return Lotto funds to the Georgetown Mayor and City Council
- Rebuild the Stabroek and Bourda Markets, and convert the old GNCB building into a bus park.
The Democratic National Congress maintains that poverty is not an act of God, but the result of wicked and corrupt politicians intent on fleecing their populations of their due gains, their due welfare.
Help to build the Democratic National Congress Into A Strong Alternative Government In Time For Elections 2025! Have your local leaders call 611-0058 today.