Despite the narrative that Guyanese are not benefitting from the oil and gas resources under the Dr Irfaan Ali-led government, billions of dollars in oil proceeds are being expended to service growth in employment costs and deliver cash grants and pensions to school children and pensioners respectively.
The government in January, presented a $782 billion fiscal plan to the National Assembly; less than one-third of this budget is financed by proceeds earned from the sale of Guyana’s oil.
Speaking at his weekly press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo highlighted areas where investments are being made and explained that this sum does not include investments in infrastructure, public assistance and other categories.
For context, school children in every part of Guyana are benefitting from a total of $8.4 billion in the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant, which was discontinued by the APNU+AFC and reinstated by the current government.
Additionally, pensioners have benefitted from a $13,000 increase in their pensions totalling over $14 billion.
“Two categories getting nearly $23 billion dollars. 14,000 people are now getting part-time jobs, who didn’t have these jobs in 2020, nearly $10 billion. If you calculate that, nearly $33 billion more that people are getting now, just from these three initiatives,” the general secretary informed media operatives.
The government is also spending $105.7 billion in wages and salaries for public servants, an increase from the APNU+AFC’s budget for this particular category of citizens.
“If you look at the growth in employment cost for the government… the last budget passed by APNU was $68.6 billion … that’s a $37 billion increase in employment cost in the public service,” he pointed out.
In total, $70 billion is being spent in oil and gas proceeds towards these categories of Guyanese by the PPP/C Administration.
The government has also set aside $5 billion towards measures to cushion the effects of the cost of living for Guyanese.
