Those massive public projects – A national tragedy and disgrace
Dear Editor,
We want to let the readers know that this is the second letter which originated from a classified conversation that Bharrat Jagdeo had with the U.S. Ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Robinson on October 2, 2006, that was leaked by Wikileaks; where he promised major changes in his second term.
In that conversation with the US Ambassador, Jagdeo claimed that combating chronic physical insecurity of the people is the biggest impediment to new investments in Guyana. Yet from 2006 to now, neither Jagdeo nor his sidekick now in the Office of the President has done much by way of sound public policy to enhance the competitiveness of the business community.
What did happen since then was that corruption was facilitated at an exponential rate by the political rulers on a grand scale. The public projects became larger both in size and complexity under the disguise that they are transformational projects, but with a real intent of being the funnel to leak state resources away from the Treasury into the pockets of greedy politicians and their business partners.
But the empirical evidence as uncovered by Tanzi et al from the World Bank is that grand projects similar to the likes of the Marriott Project, the Airport expansion Project and the Skeldon Factory, if implemented just to facilitate corruption, will result in a decline in the “productivity” on those projects and by extension, in the nation. This translates to a direct negative impact on the “rate of economic growth” which results in the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer.
To date, the PPP regime has not fulfilled any of these projects to the benefit of the poor and the working class.
What has happened since 2006 is that the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal has spent almost G$100 billion on six or seven projects, all either severely underperforming (as in the case of the Skeldon Sugar Factory) or collapsed (as in the case of the Amaila Falls Road) or just completely failed to date, as in the case of the $13 billion ICT project.
So today Guyana is saddled with the highest external debt ever in its history. This is a national tragedy and disgrace. We have discovered that nothing in those so-called mega contracts would help the poor to climb out of their poverty.
Let it be told, as Moses Nagamootoo highlighted, that the future of the Guyanese children is now pawned for a very high price. Had the Guyanese people recognized these greedy wolves in sheep’s clothing earlier, they would have saved their children and by extension, saved Guyana from billions of dollars in debt.
Dr Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh
