Pres Ali blasts APNU/AFC for non-productive, wasteful spending

…says recurrent expenditure was 5 times higher than capital projects

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Sunday evening detailed how the five years of non-productive and wasteful spending by the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) regime plunged Guyana’s economy into a relapse between 2015 and 2020.
He was at the time responding to recent remarks made by former Finance Minister under the coalition administration, Winston Jordan, who during an online streaming programme suggested that the current People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) Government should reduce waste in public spending. He believes that having at least a 10 per cent reduction could create the enough fiscal space to offer teachers high salary increases.
However, during a live broadcast on Sunday evening, President Ali highlighted the difference between the policy-making matrix and the expenditure profiles of the two governments. He pointed out that between 2015 and 2020, Jordan’s Coalition administration’s current expenditure outstrips capital expenditure, which is investments in major public sector projects and initiatives like buildings schools, hospitals, roads and social welfare spendings.
In fact, during 2019 alone – the last full year of their tenure in office, the APNU/AFC’s total expenditure on local travels and related costs amounted to more than the entire capital budgets for Regions One (Barima-Waini); Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Five (Mahaica-Berbice).
“So, in 2019, the APNU/AFC government, spent on local travels, and the meals and other things to support that local travel, more money than they spent on healthcare, education, agriculture, public transport, roads – all of these things combined for Regions One, Two, Three, Four and Five. Can you imagine that?… And Mr Jordan, who was Finance Minister overlooked this expenditure profile,” he stated.
Likewise on dietary, that is, food and entertainment, the expenditure was also more than the entire capital budget for the education and health sectors combined in 2019.
“Not only did we lost the ‘Because We Care’ [cash] grants, there was no investments in education, no new schools, [no spending on] the maintenance of schools, no new hospitals. What they spent on dietary on food for themselves in government… was more than the entire capital budget for education and health combined, and we’re talking about waste?”
“…Why we had this collapse in education sector and the healthcare sector? Why we had a regression in terms of expansion of the economy? These are the reasons how the resources were spent, how the resources were wasted… The expenditure profile or the nature of spending by the APNU/AFC government was what we term ‘non-productive expenditure’. Expenditure, basically, that constituted what we term the enjoyment of government by the APNU/AFC elites,” Ali added.
Moreover, the Head of State went onto outline that during the APNU/AFC five years in office, Guyana’s recurrent expenditure had outstripped capital expenditure by five times.
“How can that expenditure profile contributes to improvement in productivity, contribute to improvement in competitiveness, contribute to improvement in health care, in housing, in education? That is why we had no major transformative infrastructure during that period,” he posited.
In contrast, President Ali explained that to fulfill its 2020 manifesto promises, the PPP/C Government heavily invested in capital projects aim at delivering first class social services, improve access to health care, quality education, improved water and sanitation, among other things.
“All of these investments are geared at creating opportunity, opening up expenditure, creating new industries, expanding the economy, expanding the private sector, expanding jobs, creating higher paid jobs, and diversifying the economy, a key aspect of what we want to do – diversify the economy… It is also known that capital expenditure catalyze economic growth. Public investment has played an important role in catalyzing economic growth in Guyana, since it has a multiplier effect,” the Head of State stressed.
According to Ali, what the PPP/C Administration has achieved in last four years alone was done with a fraction of the expenditure profile of the Coalition regime. In fact, he disclosed that the capital expenditure of his administration is more than 90 per cent of the expenditure profile of the government’s programme.
“That is the difference where our priority lies,” the Guyanese leader stated.

APNU’s economic failures
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh also commenting on Jordan’s remarks, highlighted the discredited economic record of the APNU government from 2015 to 2020. Singh emphasised that Jordan’s remarks not only reveal his ignorance but also expose APNU’s long-standing hostility towards Guyana’s rural communities and the agriculture sector.
“Jordan’s criticism of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government for offering tax breaks and support to the agriculture sector shows once again that APNU has no regard for the backbone of our economy or the livelihoods of rural folk in Guyana,” Singh stated. “His comments make it clear that APNU has learned nothing from their disastrous handling of the economy, which resulted in widespread hardship for the people of Guyana.”
Singh reminded the public that under Jordan’s stewardship, APNU introduced over 200 new taxes, fees, and fines, including drastic increases in land rent for farmers and taxes on mining equipment, effectively crippling both sectors. “It was Jordan, as APNU’s economic czar, who imposed VAT on essential services such as electricity and water, as well as educational and medical supplies, making life more difficult for the average Guyanese household.”
He continued, “Jordan also removed the school children’s cash grant and the year-end bonus for the disciplined services, literally taking money out of the pockets of tens of thousands of Guyanese families.”
The finance minister noted that Jordan’s tenure was marked by severe economic mismanagement, including the closure of several GuySuCo sugar estates, which resulted in over 7,000 job losses and devastation to tens of thousands of households reliant on the sugar industry.
“Jordan’s latest commentary on teacher salary increases is just more empty rhetoric from someone who had every opportunity to improve the lives of Guyanese but instead brought hardship to households across the country,” Dr. Singh concluded. “This is a timely reminder of why APNU was booted out of office in 2020 and why the people of Guyana will continue to reject them for the foreseeable future.”