PSC calls out ineffective Govt COVID-19 Task Force

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) lashed out at the Government’s National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) over its inability to comprehensively address the spread of the disease in Guyana.

It is the second time that the Private Sector body is calling on the authorities to better compose the NCTF so that every aspect of the battle against the global pandemic could be addressed.

The NCTF was appointed to coordinate and oversee the measures being taken by various front-line agencies and to give these agencies, especially health workers, the support they need and according to the

PSC, it is not functioning in several key areas as would be expected.
The PSC emphasised their disappointment in the manner in which the Government has approached the management of the COVID-19 pandemic which threatens lives and economic welfare of all citizens and businesses of Guyana. The body explained that since March 31, 2020, it had called for the NCTF to be restructured to reflect a truly national task force, inclusive of all major stakeholders – social, business, religious and political, from a wide cross-section of the country.

The task force must include and embrace health professionals, Private Sector business support organisations, sectorial bodies, NGOs, and an economic committee to address the impacts on the economy and to implement a recovery plan.
The PSC noted that the current political environment coupled with COVID-19 has placed the economy in a position where it now has to fight to remain afloat. It noted that businesses are shutting down and their employees are being laid off, resulting in some of them without any economic relief and identified that as one area in which the NCTF keeps failing.
“Guyana is likely to experience its worse economic recession over the last two or three decades. Tremendous uncertainty lies ahead for the remainder of 2020. Concurrently, Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Gobind Ganga in the online edition of the Caribbean Economic Forum 2020, highlighted that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s projected non-oil growth, previously pegged at some five per cent, has been revised to negative five to seven per cent,” the PSC said in a statement.
The PSC said it strongly believes that there is a dire need for additional and extensive COVID-19 testing to be conducted in addition to better management of public information, adequate provision of Personal Protective Equipment and sufficient contact tracing to be implemented and followed up.
The PSC, from the beginning, has supported the mandatory use of masks, the practice of effective social distancing, and the need for sufficient COVID-19 tests to be conducted. Further, the PSC has submitted several comprehensive recommendations for economic measures to relieve the financial impact on the country and, in particular, economic measures to cushion the impact on small businesses and vulnerable individual citizens. These measures include tax relief, emergency funding, deferment of payment for public utility services, and rescheduling of loans and mortgages.
The Private Sector Commission noted that it will continue to advocate on behalf of the best interest of all stakeholders, and urge that the Government convene a truly national task force, a task force which includes the country’s most qualified health professionals and all of the private hospitals. It is essential, too, that an economic committee is established within the Task Force which is represented from the Private Sector, NGOs and the major political parties to plan and implement a National Economic Recovery Programme.