The government has allocated huge sums of money to construct schools, hospitals and other medical facilities. The government has also invested heavily in road construction and other infrastructure. Some are really impressive. There is the construction of the new bridge across the Demerara River. There is also the programme to bring gas to shore. The government says that the gas, when it reaches the shore, would drastically reduce the cost of electricity. However, a former Minister who planned the original gas to shore project, has said that the programme as currently constructed would actually see electricity costing more.
The construction of the schools and the medical facilities are impressive undertakings. There is one glitch. It has to do with staffing these facilities. The government, having recognised that skilled staff in the area of health are leaving in droves, has already signaled that it would employ foreigners. Sadly, for the locals, the money that would be paid to the foreigners would be far greater than they, the locals, would be receiving. In addition, the imported staff would have to be provided with social amenities.
Already there are projects that began with good intentions but which are nowhere near completion. There is the road through Le Repentir Cemetery which the Works Minister told reporters that the spirit of the dead is chasing workers. It has stalled. A major road project linking Conversation Tree to the East Bank Demerara roadway had also stalled. There is the school at Bamia, on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway that is far from completion. And there are others, yet the government is undertaking even more. No one knows where the labour force is coming from. There is the City Hall rehabilitation project. That, too, seems to be going nowhere. There have been advertisements for carpenters and other artisans. The response must be poor because one passes by City Hall and sees no construction going on.
Incomplete projects were just one of the issues that surfaced during the debate on Budget 2024. This budget is four times larger than the 2019 budget but it does not cater for wage and salary increases for public servants, among them nurses, teachers and doctors. And this is a bone of contention to the extent that the union representing the teachers have planned to take strike action from February 5. Needless to say, the Minister of Labour has already deemed such strike action as illegal. This is interesting since the legality or illegality of strike action comes into question. There is no law preventing a worker from going on strike but Minister Joseph Hamilton knows something that no one else knows.
And when it comes to spending on the people, Trinidad, in its heyday in 1978, when it was sitting at the top of the Caribbean with its oil production of about 234,110 barrels per day, set about building homes for the less fortunate. By way of comparison, Guyana is producing some 600,000 barrels of oil per day. These homes in Trinidad were built through the Housing Development Corporation. Many were never occupied. The HDC said some of the homes in question have not been purchased from HDC, while paperwork for others could not be found by its legal department. And this is not because people did not want homes. It is just that the programme was poorly executed.
Guyana has its own unoccupied structures. This has nothing to do with those homes abandoned by the owners who have left the country. This has to do with projects undertaken by the government. One sits in the city where the old Guyana Broadcasting Corporation once existed in St Phillips Green. The construction was so poor that after millions of dollars, those inspecting were advised to tread carefully in certain parts of the building. All efforts to complete the building have been abandoned. That edifice is testimony to wasted money. Another is the Skeldon Sugar Factory. Opposition leader Aubrey Norton told the National Assembly, last week, that Guyana is still repaying a US$200 million loan for what he calls a white elephant.
So Guyana is boasting about investing millions of dollars, if not billions, into the construction of schools and hospitals. Staffing may be a major problem. Hundreds of nurses and doctors have already left for perceived greener pastures. There was a joke about doctors being asked to work sometimes for 24-hour shifts. The Ministry of Health responded that such was a case of misrepresentation. It said that indeed, doctors in cases of emergencies, are called on to work long hours. However, they are not on the wards for such hours, according to the Health Ministry. They go home and are on call, the Ministry said. Imagine working all day then going home for some rest only to be roused from sleep to return to duty. Surely the doctor would consider himself to be working long hours.
There are other issues. The government is building homes for some people because it recognises that there is a shortage. At the same time, it is demolishing the temporary homes of poor people who are awaiting a call from the Housing Ministry for a house lot. The joke is that many people who have been given house lots simply cannot build. Their earnings do not allow them to. They are directed to loans but many know that they would be steeped in debt. Before the loan, they were hard pressed to make ends meet.
On the brighter side. Guyana has a new superstar. Not so long ago the cricketing executives hardly wanted to touch him. Shamar Joseph, a young fast bowler who was mainly seen as a nets bowler and who was selected to play for Guyana twice, is now wanted to be owned by all. No one cared how he ate or how he lived. No cricket club helped outfit him and I can’t remember seeing him on the local club circuit. He might have been called to trials for Guyana, once. He was simply ignored. No praise it too high, today. Success has many fathers. Failure is an orphan.
