Social commentator GHK Lall has delivered a blistering assessment of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration’s performance during the first half of 2026, arguing that Guyana’s unprecedented oil wealth has failed to improve the lives of ordinary citizens while fostering widening inequality, unchecked government spending and weakening democratic institutions.
In the second installment of his 2026 Midyear Report, published by Village Voice News, Lall contends that the country’s economic success is increasingly at odds with the daily realities confronting many Guyanese.
His commentary comes as Guyana continues to reap billions of US dollars from offshore oil production. Since first oil in December 2019, the country has earned more than US$8 billion in petroleum revenues while recording amongst the world’s fastest economies.
Despite oil wealth earnings, international financial institutions have reported that more than half of Guyana’s population lives in poverty, with more than one-third living in abject poverty. Wages have remained comparatively low even as senior government officials continue to preside over lavish state events and ceremonies that showcase the country’s newfound wealth, underscoring the widening disparity between Guyana’s unprecedented revenues and the economic reality confronting many citizens.
Lall argued that the government’s record spending has done little to bridge that divide.
“A big, boisterous national budget. One bawdier than past blasts. Just bursting with dollars: $1.5 trillion plus,” he wrote.
The 2026 National Budget, the largest in Guyana’s history, exceeded $1.5 trillion ($1.558 trillion). Just four months after its passage, the government returned to Parliament seeking approval for an additional $54.9 billion through a supplementary financial paper.
For Lall, the speed with which supplementary funding became necessary reflects a pattern of unchecked expenditure.
“A million in today’s PPP Guyana is now ‘keep-the-change’ money,” he wrote.
“At the rate that these national budgets are spiraling, with a trillion comfortably scaled, a billion could soon go the way of a million.”
He questioned whether the government’s expanding spending could eventually fuel broader economic instability despite repeated assurances that inflation remains under control.
“Is Guyana heading the way of World War I Germany? Despite all the government’s comforting talk of inflation under control?“
While government officials continue to celebrate record oil production and economic growth, Lall said those achievements mask a darker reality.
“Guyanese poor don’t know about inflation. They know starvation.”
He added: “Amidst ballooning daily oil production, there’s the darkness of deep, widespread destitution.”
Lall also questioned why what was celebrated as a historic budget required additional financing only months later.
“Four months after the big party held a bigger party over Guyana’s biggest budget (yet), it was in need of the energy from a $55 billion supplement.”
“A real supplement, or a PPP Govt on destructive steroids?” he asked, suggesting that supplementary budgets are becoming an entrenched feature of the government’s financial management.
Beyond the economy, Lall devoted much of his commentary to what he views as the erosion of democratic governance.
He pointed to the prolonged suspension of sittings of the National Assembly earlier this year, during which Parliament remained dormant until pressure mounted from the diplomatic community, including representatives of the United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union.
“The Americans, British, Canadians, and Europeans had to huff and puff to get parliament reconvened,” he wrote.
He also criticised Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira over the impasse.
“Speaker Manzoor Nadir couldn’t find the keys, or his nerves. Minister Gail Teixeira couldn’t find her voice or feet; couldn’t find in time the right lines in her script.”
Drawing a contrast between the PPP of today and the party led by its founder, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, Lall argued that parliamentary democracy has been diminished.
“The PPP’s Dr. Cheddi Jagan had developed a cottage industry around walking out of parliament. Today’s Jagan’s PPP descendants have created an industry of stopping Guyanese elected from walking into parliament.“
He further suggested that Guyana’s democratic institutions have become increasingly dependent on external intervention.
“From Down with America! it is Thank God for America. And BC&E, of course.”
Lall also criticised President Mohamed Irfaan Ali’s response to a recent controversy involving allegations that a person reportedly connected to senior government figures had damaged private property.
He said official institutions remained silent before the President intervened.
“The palace turned off the lights, went quiet. The police followed suit.”
“Into this vacuum, stepped Pres Ali, after donning his now well-worn Minister of Defense robes to deliver the protective: why the noise? There’s no issue.“
He added that Attorney General Anil Nandlall should explain what he described as contradictions in the government’s application of the rule of law.
Turning to the devastating earthquakes that struck neighbouring Venezuela in June, killing more than 1,700 people and displacing tens of thousands, Lall contrasted Guyana’s humanitarian response with what he described as the hardship endured by many Guyanese.
“Venezuelans closed out the first half of 2026 in tragic, wrenching despair… Guyanese rightly extended words of harmony and humanity.”
“I do the same for my fellow Guyanese living right here. They live with daily political and environmental earthquakes that rock them, then ravage them.”
Summing up his assessment of the country’s political direction, Lall offered one of his harshest critiques.
“A piteous presidency. A putrid set of political hustlers and scavengers.”
Although the first half of 2026 has ended, Lall warned that the months ahead offer little reason for optimism.
“The good news is that the first half is over; the past is past. The bad news is that there are six months left. Therein lie opportunities for many more tragedies and exploitations of regular Guyanese.”
He argued that the cumulative effect of these failures extends far beyond politics. In his view, unprecedented oil wealth coupled with persistent poverty, weakened parliamentary oversight, ballooning public expenditure and an uneven application of the rule of law is creating a society where prosperity increasingly benefits a privileged few while democratic institutions steadily erode. Unless transparency, accountability and equitable development become genuine national priorities, Lall suggests Guyana risks squandering a once-in-a-generation opportunity, leaving behind not only immense oil wealth, but also a legacy of deeper inequality, diminished public trust and fractured governance.
