…on chicken imports
Well…well…well! They say “those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad”. So when will the madness of this government on the economy cease? Or is it the symptoms of the madness induced by the god’s that’ll spell their doom come 2020? Two weeks ago, we heard about the Chinese Company extending CJIA importing stones from Suriname – while our local quarries are overflowing with the stuff. This ridiculous decision might just replace the old idiom “carrying stones to Newcastle”!!
Last week’s “mad” episode was cancelling the government contract for supplying Fruit Juices to our schoolchildren by a local company and handing it over to a Surinamese one!! And before Guyanese could recover from that double whammy, here comes the latest eruption of the dementia: the government has given licences to import 1 Million pounds FOREIGN chicken even though there’s been no indication our local producers can’t fill demand. Including the normally higher-use Christmas period.
The madness is obviously accelerating its effects…and who knows where this may end. Hiring Surinamese Public Servants? The chicken business isn’t “chicken feed” to the Guyanese economy – that’s for sure. And it’s not just the big producers like Bounty Farms: we’re talking about thousands of small poultry farmers across Guyana – especially in the rural villages – that supplement the subsistence wages of the “breadwinner”. This was pointed out by former Commerce Minister Irfaan Ali…but it appears to’ve have rolled off like water on “chicken’s” backs!!
These ordinary folks – literally “on the ground” – will be the ones who’ll be hardest hit when one million pounds of chicken hits the streets. This government and its Finance Minister’s claimed a “Macro-Fiscal Forecasting Committee” has begun meeting regularly to discuss the economic outlook of the nation and generate macroeconomic forecasts. Does it take a high powered committee to know what the fiscal impact of these cockamamie decisions will have?
So what happened when this decision was made? Were they asleep? Or was it a case of “untouchables” getting the contract? Guyanese call people “pot salt” when they seem to be involved in everything. So is Van West-Charles our local “pot salt” when it comes to getting government contracts? Or is he the one being fingered because some competitors have been cut out from the gravy train?
Be as it may, as one of our pioneer politicians exclaimed when things were just getting too much: “This confounded nonsense must stop!” But you and your Eyewitness know, these kinda things don’t stop of their own volition.
The question is, “Who will bell the (fat) cats?”
…with GECOM’s procurement
Your Eyewitness has already expressed his disappointment about GECOM being dragged into the cesspool of corruption and corrupt activities that now defines Guyana. But with every revelation each passing day, it’s like pus that erupts from a seemingly innocuous sore once the scab’s peeled off. It ain’t pretty and you’d better hold your nose, even when reading about it!
But today your Eyewitness has another concern: what will these revelations do to the overall credibility of the one institution that stands between us and anarchy every five years? Imagine those in charge of GECOM insulting the Guyanese people by trying to fob off the scam on the Tender Board, or even more scandalously, on the PPP.
Can anyone even CONCEIVE of the big-wigs at GECOM even giving the PPP the time of the day, much less collude on such big time thievery?
Plueeeese!! Whatever the outcome of the latest audit by the Auditor General, there has to be a wholesale cleansing of the entire senior staff.
And this must happen before 2010.
…with Contingency Fund
The word “contingency” means a future event that can’t be predicted with certainty? But spending $799,897,647 between Sept-Dec last year that wasn’t foreseen in a Budget presented just months before???
Jeez!! The mind boggles at the details to be revealed!
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