The Guyana Development Bank (GDB) could be the remedy for the needy. My challenge is that it begins life on the wrong foot. Wrongly conceived. Wrongly structured. Wrongly wired. The biggest question concerns the caliber of the people who the PPP will get to sit in the chairs of management and higher oversight. Look at what Guyanese have at this commission and that agency, and it’s an open-and-shut case for continuity with mostly misfits and square pegs that have made themselves well-rounded. Any venal, craven, political czar can roll them around, at will. Try this litmus test: how many honest people does the PPP Govt have under its wing? A ministry. A state institution. A watchdog body. Who isn’t mangy is flea-ridden (despite being well-nourished, have access to world-class facilities). There stands the GDB.
What Guyanese are coming to grips with is a reincarnation of past failures, institutions that thrived with hustles. The people that were supposed to benefit in their numbers are still crying today. In New York or Toronto. Or their final resting places. In this society, wherever there is big money, the vultures gather. Why should the GDB be any different? Its very composition has already given a glimpse of the schemes and visions now getting underway. Some ordinary Guyanese should get relief, an opportunity to get off the ground, make a start. The good news ended there. After all, there has to be some sweet, feel-good chapters in the record books to exhibit to the media, show the auditors. If they are Exxon type auditors, find a god, and say a prayer.
Get me straight: the GDB in theory can be a beauty. The GDB, in practice, could project a totally different face, reality. On the one hand, it could help lots of Guyanese. On the other, it could be another well-configured institution for self-service which has a dirtier nickname. Self-enrichment. Nothing new under the sun in PPP Guyana. It happened in PNC Guyana, so why not PPP Guyana? PPP Guyana has made PNC Guyana look like the Boy Scouts (and Girl Guides) era. I threw in the bracketed because many PPP Govt sisters have shown themselves to be no stragglers in the self-enrichment department. Sisters are not limited to those who once claim exclusive ownership of that gender.
After all the government commercials about the GDB, it should be given a test drive. I plan to apply for a loan. No dark objectives, I assure everyone. Such as rocking the bank, or any poorly moored boat. If the bank is truly open to all Guyanese, I shouldn’t be shown the door. With a security escort. While there, I may walk across to Brickdam and apply for a house lot. A gambling man, I am. Living dangerously is second nature. I have in mind a publishing house, which could include a newspaper. Land and cash needed. What better places to petition than the spanking new GDB and the aged and jaded Ministry of Housing? No insult intended. The objective is to lay to rest these two questions: is the GDB a setup for PPP loyalists groomed by PPP tricksters on how to con the system? Or, is the GDB a genuine house of finance in service of all Guyanese, without fear or favor. (or without any regard for their political persuasion, the color of their conscience, and the hard truths in their expressions)?
When well-known men and women are handpicked for the GDB, given their unwritten marching orders, and let loose. I foresee financial skullduggeries. A few make it big; many more get burned, and the remaining millions bloat the accounts of those salivating to get going at the GDB. When a government is as devious and twisted as the PPP Govt, that’s the writing the wall. Neon lights blinking their early warnings.
