The Government’s recent flurry of consultations, announcements and new development commitments, including the so-called Model Village Initiative, raises legitimate questions about planning, budgeting and timing. APNU supports better roads, drainage, housing, markets, water, recreation and economic opportunities in every community, as our 2025 manifesto outlined. But development cannot become a substitute for accountability, particularly while Guyana is still grappling with the MV Barima tragedy and families continue to demand answers.
The public is entitled to know where this nationwide Model Village Initiative came from. The 2026 National Budget was presented in January and approved in February, and Government only recently returned to Parliament for substantial supplementary expenditure. Yet no clearly defined national Model Village programme, with a dedicated budget, implementation framework, selection criteria and delivery schedule, was presented to the National Assembly. If these projects are being financed from existing allocations for roads, drainage, housing, local government or other sectors, then Government should publish the relevant budget lines, Government or Cabinet decisions underpinning the programme, and the corresponding implementation plans.
This lack of clarity is made more troubling by earlier programmes that now appear disconnected from the latest initiative. Tiger Bay was previously announced as Georgetown’s first model neighbourhood, while Parliament also approved substantial funding for the wider Georgetown Restoration Initiative. What has become of those commitments? What has been spent, what has been completed, and how do Tiger Bay, the Georgetown Restoration Initiative and the new Model Village Initiative fit together? Guyana cannot be governed by moving from one announcement and political brand to another without a clear line from policy, to budget, to procurement, to delivery.
The timing also cannot be ignored. The MV Barima capsized on July 18, and within weeks the national conversation has been flooded with presidential outreaches and development announcements, even as serious questions remain about the vessel, its maintenance, inspections, MARAD, T&HD, the passenger manifest, replacement infrastructure, salvage and institutional responsibility. While any government must continue to govern broadly, there is a noted and, frankly, obscene haste to move the country back to business as usual before the unanswered questions surrounding this national tragedy have been properly addressed. Development activity cannot be allowed to crowd out accountability or push the grief and legitimate demands of affected families to the margins.
As a Member of Parliament, I will continue to insist on a simple standard: Plan. Pay. Perform. Show us the plan, show us where Parliament approved the money, and show us what was actually delivered. We will hold Government to its promises in Tiger Bay, Georgetown, the Model Villages and communities across Guyana, while continuing to demand full accountability for the MV Barima tragedy. Development and accountability are not competing priorities; a serious Government must be capable of both.
