Govt policy contributing to increase in poverty – fmr Minister

IDB regional poverty report

A recent Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report has placed Guyana at the top of the list of regional countries that have high levels of poverty.
The IDB has also noted that this contributed to the high crime rate in Guyana and other countries with extreme poverty.

Former Junior Finance Minister Juan Edghill has claimed that the policies of the David Granger-led Administration were the main contributing factor to this development and things could only get worse given the decision the Government has taken to send home thousands of sugar workers by year-end.
Speaking about the proposed plan to lay off thousands of sugar workers, Edghill told Guyana Times on Monday that this was only helping to add more people to the poverty line and this would in turn contribute to other issues. He noted that the move was senseless and did not bode well for Guyana.
“By the layoffs and closure of estates, firing of over 1000 Amerindians and the slowdown of the economy, that is causing small businesses to reduce staff and no foreign direct investment; these are all issues that will trickle in and this is not helpful to Guyana and the people that live here,” he said.
The former Minister pointed to the issue with the imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on lumber at different stages of production which continues to affect many small and medium-scale loggers. Edghill claimed that this move has led to many people in Linden, Ituni and Kwakwani being laid off or closing down their businesses, as they could no longer operate under such heavy taxes.
“If you go these villages, the people there who used to be involved in some level of logging are no longer able to work. And that is because they have doubled taxes from 10 per cent to 20 per cent. They are no longer meaningfully engaged and that alone could tell you that they are finding it difficult to pay their loans and some people are already finding it hard to get jobs,” he explained.
According to the IDB’s Reformulation, Upgrade and Expansion of Road Network report, compiled under the Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme, 26.6 per cent of the population were “multi-dimensionally poor”. The IDB compared this with a regional average of 18 per cent.
The report, which focused primarily on infrastructure and housing, went into detail about the real cost of housing deficiencies. The IDB noted that these shortfalls were perceived to contribute to crime rates. “In Georgetown, poverty is evident in various measures of the standard of living and housing deficits,” it stated. “Twenty-nine per cent of the population lives in overcrowded housing (of) over two people per room.”
“Criminality in Georgetown is also high, 33.8 murders per 100,000 people; above the regional average of 26, perceived to be exacerbated by the lack of community facilities and public spaces. Basic infrastructure in new and established housing sites developed incrementally by [Central Housing and Planning Authority] CH&PA,” it added.
The report acknowledged the work of the CH&PA, noting that there were programmes enabling housing construction and extensions by upgrading infrastructure, and allocation of land and titles. But it noted that much more needs to be done. The IDB also noted that local Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) lack sufficient institutional capacity for long-term site management.