There is a lot of money to recover

Dear Editor,

The history of the debt relief effort for Guyana goes back to at least 1987 when the G-7 countries at their annual meeting actively began the process to cancel some of the debts of low-income countries (LICs). A year later, at the 14th G-7 summit from June 19-23, 1988 at the Toronto Convention Center in Canada, the rich countries concluded that the rescheduling of these debts could not be the only solution for the LICs like Guyana, and therefore a more complex mechanism was put in place to reduce the stock of debt outstanding. Where was Bharrat Jagdeo in 1988 and who was the then the Minister of Finance of Guyana?

Carl Greenidge, the then Minister of Finance, immediately presented to the international community a far-reaching Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) that was harmonized with this G-7 initiative. The ERP had four main interrelated objectives: restore economic growth, merge the underground economy into the official one, arrest the balance of payments crisis and return Guyana to a state of creditworthiness.

A Globe and Mail (Toronto) newspaper article captioned ‘Canada stage-manages Rescue Package for Guyana’ revealed that in 1990 a “support group” of rich countries pooled millions of dollars to pay off Guyana’s arrears to the World Bank and IMF, which restored Guyana’s good credit standing with both institutions. Again I ask, where was Bharrat Jagdeo in 1990 and who was the then Minister of Finance?

Guyana’s creditworthiness was restored in 1990, not in 1999 as the Jagdeo-Ramotar group continue to proclaim. Guyana’s economy turned around in 1991, not post 1992 as they continue to cunningly declare. Guyana started to arrest its balance of payments problem in 1991, not post 1992 as speaker after speaker at the PPP Kitty Rally deceptively affirmed. Some honesty from Jagdeo and Ramotar would serve them well. As Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of America said, “Honestly is the first chapter of wisdom.” But without a good education, the roots of honestly can never prosper and that is why the PPP leaders will continue to be strangers to the truth.

Desmond Hoyte and Carl Greenidge laid the foundation for Guyana’s economic turnaround in 1988, and when Dr Cheddi Jagan won the 1992 elections, he continued to water the roots of the ERP upon very sound advice from his Minister of Finance, Asgar Ally. Credit also has to go to Bharrat Jagdeo who took up this baton from his predecessors to complete this relay that allows for more than US$611 million of Guyana stock of debt to be lifted from the backs of the Guyanese people. But this project was not a one-man effort and was not conceived by Bharrat Jagdeo.

Actually, when he took over, the debt write-off plans under the HIPC Initiatives were already a foregone conclusion. All the PPP administration had to do was implement the IMF conditionalities including passing the laws for the establishment of a Public Procurement Commission and they were going to cross the tape, and they finally did.

So if there is anyone Guyana has to thank for our debt write-off package it was two men – Michael Wilson, the Minister of Finance of Canada in 1988 and James Baker who was the then Treasury Secretary to the US President Ronald Reagan, after who the famous Baker Plan was named. Also, we must never forget that it was Carl Greenidge who led the charge locally in those challenging days to prepare the foundation to turn around Guyana economically. The nation cannot divorce itself from the good work of our predecessors. Let us give Carl Greenidge his jacket.

Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh