May 2015 was the biggest con-job in Guyana

Dear Editor,
It was reported in one of the local media houses that Finance Minister Winston Jordan stated that members of the Guyana Bankers Association are “optimistic about foreign exchange in the country.” Additionally, the Minister stated according to that media house that “over the past months but there is quite a bit of foreign currency circulating in the system”. Is that so?
These are the facts.
1. The Bank of Guyana published its August 2017 Statistical Bulletin on September 26, 2017, and in that official document, it reveals that the international reserves at the Central Bank was US7.6 million compared to US1.2 million in May 2017 (a decrease of US.6 million over three months).
If you compare the situation to a year ago, it was US3.8 million in August 2016 (a decrease of US.2 million over 12 months).
2. Based on a model developed by Professor Erbe and using real figures from the Bank of Guyana 2017 Half Year Report, capital flight for the first six months of 2017 was determined to be US million.
This is what people should know, the lower the confidence of the Private Sector in the Government, the higher the rate of private capital flows out of the country and this directly translates to a depletion of the foreign reserves.
This will directly affect the entire nation in the near future when it is called upon to make payments on its foreign bills.
This entire development can and will lead to Guyana becoming uncreditworthy once again if this situation is not addressed. All it takes is the oil prices increasing by US over the next 12 months which is not an unreal situation if a few more natural disasters hit Texas and Venezuela implode further politically.
But what is directly important to all of the people, is that the lower the amount of private capital being invested in the nation, the fewer job opportunities there will be in Guyana.
But what this entire prognosis highlights is if this trend continues, there will be less and less money in everyone’s pocket. And all this hullabaloo of US million per day revenue for Guyana from 2020 to fill the gap, can be defined as absolute malarkey.
Why is the nation here at the dawn of 2018?
1. This regime is highly incompetent and they do not want to accept it. One of the best pieces of wisdom I heard on the 2011 campaign was from CN Sharma when he said “anyone can be President but they have to be willing to surround themselves with the best talent”. He was perfectly in order but he failed to tell that to his colleagues in the coalition.
2. President Granger has refused to lead on the big issues since he arrived in town. He prefers to be the pageantry President who prefers to salute marching bands and makes empty speeches that are not backed up by any action.
So we must prepare our minds for the truth, this Granger presidency is not the solution to Guyana’s economic challenges; is actually part of the problem. But as many who voted for the coalition are waking up to find – May 2015 was the biggest con-job in the entire political history of the nation. People voted for change and for a chance of a more functional Government.

Sincerely,
Sase Singh