GECOM Chair sleight of hand masks pay increase deception

…APNU’s divisive strategies eclipse that of Dictator Burnham — Ramsaroop

The coalition APNU/AFC Administration has again given with one hand and with the other will now take considerably more. In the process, Government will deliver possibly its most lethal blow to the Guyanese people and the country’s economy.
This assessment was made by Economic Advisor to the Opposition Leader, Peter

Ramsaroop, who this week weighed in on the recent debacle engulfing the country over the unilateral swearing in of 84-year-old retired Justice James Patterson as Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
Ramsaroop said the ruse is now being covered up in the collective face of the entire citizenry by the not-so-clever “sleight-of-hand game” being employed by the President, the Finance Minister, and his spin doctors under the hand of the Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.
In an interview with this newspaper, Ramsaroop was adamant that while the GECOM development is deeply disturbing, there is an even wider and more sinister strategy at play.
He told this publication that Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and his lawyers Anil Nandlall and others will be dealing in detail with the impact of the President’s actions, but as a Financial Analyst to the People’s Progressive Party, he is compelled to respond to this blatant and contemptuous action, which not only damages the much touted but hollow concept of social cohesiveness, but will also seriously affect the confidence of those who wish to invest in the country.
“Always follow the money,” Dr Ramsaroop quipped as he reminded this publication that on the very day that the President decided to swear in Justice (rtd) Patterson as GECOM Chairman, the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, had announced a final offer to public servants.
This Government has, in the face of a pleading private sector and an ailing public sector, refused to give the economy a stimulus shot, but has instead widened yet another of its revenue sources, Dr Ramsaroop said.
Dr Ramsaroop reminded of the announcement made by Minister Harmon hours before the controversial and widely criticised action in the hasty swearing in of the GECOM Chairman, which immediately triggered a nationwide furor and genuine fears of a return to rigged elections.
According to Dr Ramsaroop, Minister Harmon’s announcement was just a formality, since the Guyana Public Service Union — the union negotiating under the Collective Labour Agreement for public servants — has “no ability to tell this Government anything.”
He was adamant that the GPSU has no kind of clout, and cannot go to President Granger or Minister Jordan to make any kind of demands.
Speaking to the actual impact of the pay increase, Dr Ramsaroop said that what in fact will happen is that the pittance of an increase will not be felt in any meaningful way by individual public servants, whose increases will barely amount to “Chinese food money.”
He reminded, however, “Increases in salary, however small, will mean increased taxes for the Government; and so, taken together, this means that whatever increases the clerk, typist or technician gets on his or her payslip means the Government gets a bigger share.”
This, he said, “When taken in its totality, simply means the state will be pulling in more revenue from an already economically crippled people.”
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), by its own admission, is not functioning at full capacity. And with a system that employs people, mistakes will be made — mistakes that in some cases take years to fix, years the typist of the clerk will not have, said Dr Ramsaroop.
On the matter of the minimum wage, Dr Ramsaroop said the amount is ridiculous in the first place, and while any increase is welcome, “unless the Government gets a hold of its management of the nation’s finances pretty soon, even the Ministry of the Presidency might have trouble to pay its light and electricity bills.”
Perhaps Major General (retd.) Joseph Singh has seen the light before he is pushed out in the apparent ethnic cleansing that is taking place, according to Dr Ramsaroop; who
insists that the GECOM development also has to be seen in the context of the coalition Government being a shackled administration that has gotten a taste for power but has already left in its wake a trail of mismanagement and an inability to act decisively against ministerial lack of responsibility for such serious catastrophies as the fire and escapes in our prisons.
“I do not want to speak ill of the elderly, and Justice Patterson is of course an eminent legal luminary; but let’s face reality: he is 84 years of age, pushing 85, and would be 87 by the time of the next general elections. The President knows fully well that this choice for GECOM (Chairman) would not have been popular, but decided to go ahead and ride rough-shod over the majority of opinions in the country, and one would expect the international community. The fact that the announcement was made during Diwali period also makes nonsense of the concept to promote light over darkness.”
Dr Ramsaroop posited, “It is for this very reason (that) the President made his announcement on the very day he swore in Justice Patterson. It was a sleight of hand to try to avoid any public scrutiny of an eight per cent increase on a $55,000 salary in an economy that has been contracting while taxes and inflation continue to increase.”
Dr Ramsaroop questioned, “Why else would the President want to hide from his people the generosity of his administration in giving a pay increase? Everyone loves to hear that they are getting a pay increase… The answer is simple: (Government) intend to take a little bit more out of your salary.”
Dr Ramsaroop said the effect of such a policy being carried out by the administration is already being felt across the country and more particularly among businesses.
“The new taxes alone last year took more than $10billion out of the pockets of the ordinary man. Those increases in fees, those increases that even the donkey cart man had to pay, amounted to over $10 billion going into the Government’s coffers,” Dr Ramsaroop explained.
The financial analyst said he is sure the Minister of Finance or some Government spinner at the Department of Public Information would want to point out that the increases take public servants wages to the highest it has even been, but he said that person would fail to say that the amount of taxes being collected by Government are also the highest ever collected.
Dr. Ramsaroop told this publication, “The undemocratic and seriously divisive nature of the administration’s financial strategies eclipse (those) of Dictator Forbes Burnham.”
He cautioned, “Burnham’s protégé is now displaying even more sinister dictatorial tendencies, and the rumblings surrounding GECOM can only mean a contentious, if not outright rigged, elections in 2020.”
According to Jagdeo’s advisor, “The business community is already in outright revolt. We have religious leaders coming out against this too; but bear in mind, as troubling as it is, the Government will now be taking a little more out of your pockets every month….and the oil has not even started to flow.”