APNU/AFC took $300B taxes more from Guyanese while bankrupting Treasury – FITUG

…questions where has this money gone; where was it spent

The bombshell revelations regarding the state of the country’s financial health brings into focus the fact that “it is now even more necessary that a legitimate Government be installed into office, and the task of rescuing Guyana commence in earnest.”
This is according to the country’s largest union representative body, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), which on Friday joined the national debate that has emerged over the nation’s financial affairs and the inability of the treasury to support the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) at this juncture.
FITUG observed, “At the end of April this year, the public deposit account had been overdrawn by some $88 billion”, and said this reflects “a $10 billion increase from the month prior.”
This was noted: “even more alarming is the sustained and massive deterioration of the account, which had a positive balance of just over $5 billion in May, 2015. In other words, that account alone was drained of some $9 billion, further indebting each Guyanese, on a per capita basis, by approximately $120,000.”
FITUG maintains the recent announcement from the Finance Ministry “has brought into focus the health of our nation’s economy at this time”, and said, “Indeed, it has long been suspected that the economy has been ailing for some time, as more and more data continues to indicate that all is not well.”
Reflecting on “the most acute state the public deposits account has even found itself in,” FITUG observed: “Apart from that, other troubling indicators are also emerging. We have seen data indicating that our gold reserves have been largely liquidated, with just a pittance remaining.”
Elaborating on the country’s financial state of affairs, FITUG noted that the situation is further compounded by the fact that “our foreign currency reserves are below the acceptable threshold.”
The workers’ representative body has since iterated: “All of this occurred at the same time that the Coalition, (A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change) over the last five (5) years, extracted from Guyanese taxpayers some $300 billion more in additional taxes.”
FITUG has since articulated that, “it begs the obvious questions ‘where has this money gone? Where has it been spent? And what benefit did it bring to the Guyanese people?” adding that “these are certainly pressing questions that require conclusive answers at this time.”
The workers’ representative body noted that “even the new star — oil – has faltered already with revenues this year well below what was anticipated”, and that this “comes against the backdrop of the minimisation of sugar and the heavy taxes placed on the agricultural sector, mining and forestry, which have only served to reduce exports and thus promote greater instability in the economy.”
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union, a subset of FITUG, had a day earlier accused the administration of abandoning the sugar belt, and from all appearances, being prepared to drive a large section of Guyanese into poverty, leading the industry’s workers representatives to question where the administration spent a whopping $333 million daily over the past month.
GAWU has since accused the administration of ‘pussy footing’ with the request for support made by GuySuCo Chairman John Dow since May 15.
“This unwarranted delay in addressing GuySuCo’s survival plea brings into focus the level of importance Government places on the sugar sector. In fact, this type of action contradicts the grand statements often made by Government officials about its commitment to reorganising and reforming the sugar sector,” GAWU has said.
It was pointed out that while the Ministry of Finance, in a statement on Wednesday, “seems to admit that the Treasury is empty and the country is bankrupt”, the corporation’s written “request and plea did not attract the President’s attention, until a copy of the correspondence found its way into the public eye.”
The Ministry’s statement followed a reported engagement between de-facto President David Granger and his Ministers of Finance and Agriculture, and coincided with a report made by Guyana Times which highlighted the state of affairs in the sugar industry.
According to the sugar representatives’ union, “The Administration’s disdain for the sector is well established and documented. It is an ignominious period for an industry that literally caused the formation of, and built, Guyana.”