Just about every Guyanese has heard or read about oil wealth in the African countries. The foreign companies made huge oil discoveries and set about paying the requisite royalties and profits.
But the situation went beyond that. Some of them offered bribes to the leader of the country although bribery was seriously frowned upon by the parent country. In recent years some courts have ruled on the bribery cases.
Meanwhile, while the African leaders became immensely rich the people remained dirt poor. Some still lived in communities without running water. Some lived in zinc shacks and many lived on a pittance. Starvation was common in a country that was supposed to be rich.
Guyana in in that same position. Our leaders made a lot of noise about the fastest growing economy with the oil finds. Indeed, a lot of money was coming in. There were warnings about the Ditch Disease. This is the case when the economy depends exclusively on oil.
When the oil runs out the economy collapses. All the money that came from oil I now being used to support the economy. But it doesn’t last forever so the country ends up poorer than it ever was.
So there is the present case. Guyana has been receiving a windfall from the oil revenue. Without oil Guyana would have been struggling with its exports that really do not amount to much. It would have been consigned to perpetual borrowing and of course the economy would have been limping along.
With the oil revenue Guyana has gone on a spending spree. Money has been disbursed to cane cutters who were already paid their severance; to fisher folk who are facing declining catch; flood-hit crop and livestock farmers and some households affected by COVID.
Prices began to rise. Young people who began to save to build their own homes found that the money they saved and the loans they took, found that the money was simply not enough. The prices of building material soared.
What would have built a house a few months ago can barely complete the frame. Many young people are without a home although they saved, and they remain in debt.
I did say before that many people have had to forego at least one meal a day because they simply cannot afford that meal. I also noted that many children go to school hungry. The result is that they cannot study and the cycle of poverty continues.
People, recognizing the need to help children, are mobilizing to get the more affluent among us to provide meals for the hungry school children. This would have implications for many families.
Whatever the case, Guyana is touted to have the fastest growing economy. The economy is expected to grow by almost 50 per cent this year. That should be great news. However, for all the money collected over the past three years, poverty is on the rise.
Guyana remains a poverty-stricken country and getting worse.
According to the World Bank, despite growing oil revenues, “Guyana’s national poverty headcount, the share of the population living below US$5.5 a day, is among the highest in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region at around 48 percent.
Poverty rates are highest in the sparsely populated interior or hinterland, where communities have limited access to economic opportunities, healthcare, and public services.”
As APNU+AFC remarked at its Press Conference on 31st May, “In less than two years, the PPP government has brought this country to the point where inequality and poverty have climbed, while the overall quality of life of citizens has dropped.
“The PPP’s bad attitude, bad policy-making, and bad governance will continue to make things worse for all citizens, but especially for low- income families and others experiencing similar hardships.”
This World Bank report is stunning. Before oil and about a decade ago, the very World Bank had reported that 36 per cent of Guyanese were living in poverty and a further 25 were living in abject poverty.
One would have expected that with money some effort would have been made to adjust wages and salaries so that people could have earned a living wage. There was a time when the gap between the highly paid and the lower level workers was wide but not as wide as today.
Across-the-board pay increases, a habit of the present government, widened the gap. To make the difference smaller the bigger increase would have gone to the lowest paid. The higher paid would have got the smallest increase. They all face the same market prices.
This government continues to give 3% to 7% increase on very low wages and salaries to workers.
Three per cent of $70,000 is $2,100 per month for the poor man. What that means is while the workers are getting $2,100 per month on their salaries the President gets the same three per cent on a salary of $3,000,000 and therefore he gets a $90,000 per month increase.
While the average man is taking home a $25,000 increase per year, the President is taking home $1,105,200 per year.
So poverty continues and despite all the money in the country none is going to the people who deserve it—the people who are the owners of the country, the people who slaved to make the country what it is. Meanwhile those who handle the money are making their beds with it.
