By Fareeza Haniff
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Incoming Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo has accused the government of tricking the Guyanese people into believing that the increase given to public servants is substantial.
The 2015 budget was presented on August 10 under the theme, “A Fresh Approach To A Good Life In A Green Economy.”
In this regard, Jagdeo believes that Finance Minister, Winston Jordan should rename the theme of the budget to “A fresh start to deteriorating standards of living in a destroyed economy.”
The budget revealed that effective July 1, the basic minimum wages will be increased from $39,540 to $50,000. This translates to a 26.4 percent increase for those still earning the old minimum wage 17.1 percent for over 4,000 public servants earning the current minimum wage of $42,703.”
Additionally, effective July 1, 2015 all other public servants will receive a 5 percent salary increase plus an additional $5,000 monthly. But while Jagdeo welcomed the increase, he criticized the Finance Minister, stating that when these figures are divided by two, given the date it takes effect, it means that it will only be an increase of 7.5% for those earning $50,000 and 5% for those earning $100,000.
“These are even lower than what the People’s Progressive Party gave in the past. So, Jordan has played a clever sleight of hand; a three card trick on people. At the end of the day, the public servants are not going to take home 15% who earned $50,000; they are going to take home 7 1/2 percent for this year. He has duped the entire nation,” Jagdeo told a news conference on Tuesday, August 11.
The former President also chastised the Finance Minister for not sticking to economics during his budget presentation but rather sought to “disparage everything the PPP did in the past.”
“I think he suffered a bit of schizophrenia because in many instances, he started off by praising the past and then concluded that it was all PPP morass and stench of corruption and everything that led to this wonderful past.”
Jagdeo made it known that the PPP will be taking up its seats in Parliament on Monday, August 17 when the debates are set to commence. He says he is shocked that Jordan could present a $221 billion budget, which is one billion more than last year, when the coalition claimed Guyana was bankrupt because of PPP corruption.
Meanwhile, he also noted that while it is good the government waived taxes for vehicles for the security sector it will not stimulate the economy. The PPP, he says, is in support of the monies given to the sugar industry and those allocated for the payment of rice farmers.
It’s rather unfortunate that many Guyanese are loyal to a particular pollitical party solely based on race. Even after the PPP has stolen, raped and sold out our country for personal gain, there are many uneducated ppl who don’t see anything wrong with that. The PPP have done such a miserable job at running this country that Guyana was found to be the most corrupt country in the English speaking region! Now that’s disgraceful. It’s clear that this new government has its sights sets on excellence, not racial discrimination and favoritism. And the funny thing is that under the PPP rule, the Indians are the ones that suffered the most. But due to the inherent racism passed down from generation, most of the poor Indians are too racist to even see that they’re the ones that hot screwed the most.
If is ten percent per year … Then at the half year point it will only means u get 5 percent… If it was three quarter of the year means u get 7.5 percent… Do the maths….
Well said.
JUST RESPONDING TO MOHAMED MOST OF WHAT YOU WRITE DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE HOW MANY PNC MEMBERS ARE IN PRISON AFTER 28 YEARS OF RIGGED ELECTIONS AND MAKE GUYANA BANKRUPT AND THE DEBT 900 PERCENT OF GDP AND AFTER THE DEATH OF WALTER RODNEY VINCENT TEEKAH AND OTHERS JAGDEO GO TO COURT FOR SAYING SOMETHING INSIGNIFICANT BHERRI GO TO COURT FOR SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCE AND DEATH SQUAD MEMBER HINDS CALLED OUT PNC MEMBERS CORBIN AND OTHERS AS THE REAL CULPRIT THE PPP CIVIC ARE NOT PERFECT BUT BROUGHT THE COUNTRY FROM NOTHING I THINK YOU HAVE PERSONAL GRIEVIENCE AGAINST THE PPP CIVIC THAT WHY YOU DO NOT THINK STRAIGHT OR SIMPLY PUT MAKE ANY SENSE
ALL THESE THINGS THAT SANDRA MENTION DEFINETLY DID NOT CAUSE THE GUYANA ECONOMY TO GROW FOUR PERCENT PLUS TROUGHOUT THE PPP CIVIC ADMINISTRATION ONLY THE THE PEOPLE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OR UTTERLY BIAS WOULD DENY THIS IF SOMEBODY DID NOT MAKE IT IN GUYANA THE FIRST THING THE BLAME THE GOVERNMENT IF THE ECONOMY WAS GROWING THEN MONEY WAS MOVING AND IF YOU ARE NOT SMART. ETHICAL AND HARD WORKING MAYBE YOU SHOULD BLAME YOURSELF OR YOUR PARENTS FOR NOT TEACHING YOU ABOUT RESPONSABILITY AND HARD WORK THEN DO NOT BLAME THE GOVERNMENT FOR YOUR MISFORTUNE
jagdeo who destroyed Guyana”s economy , you are a bare face thief and scoundrel , you are nothing more than a devil the child of satan
Sure right! DRUGS,And crime,the examples are in the news every day take Jenny for example,Ashni,and Kem Lall just to tickle your mind, Roger Khan had the economy of the PPP high ,,,Look under the ppp how many like you Baboo sell your soul to run to America/Canada
Ranji, before calling people idiots and sending them to a neutral corner, read the World Bank info carefully. It says that the reason for what you are insinuating is due to a number of factors, which you did not mention, example, the introduction of the VAT, the Debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries and the Multilateral debt relief agreement initiative that Guyana received. That is not glory.
jagdeo and his team cant bare to see our new president will rise our economy better than him
Ask the PNC economic GURU under Hoyte who reduced Guyana and Guyanese to bankruptcy
Furthermore, ask yourself what did the PPPC inherit from the PNC government in 1992 and what did the Granger administration inherit from the PPPC as far as the economy and the treasury are concerned.
Shameless bunch of hippocrites who constantly bash the PPPC and Jagdeo despite returning Guyana to international respectability
Minister Jordon should be commended for the excellent budget and the speech delivered I am happy that our old aged pensioners can now enjoy somewhat a much decent something to survive on.
I would rather say, “A FRESH START BY JAILING ALL THE PPP SCUMBAGS FOR ALL THE CORRUPTION UNDER JAGDEO AND HIS SCUMBAG CLIQUE”.
Under the PPP/C administration the Guyanese economy improved tremendously. For those who critique the PPP/C while in office you benefitted the most.
Let’s see what this APNU+AFC=PNC Government will do for you.
the ppp always gave atleast 5% and made it retroactive from the start of the year unlike APNU who made it retroactive for half of the year..Were u born yesterday?
Guyana going to the gutter with this new government. They all talk and nothing constructive. The past government did a lot better, only people too ashamed to admit they did because they voted for failure.
Some clarity please, can one of these critics of the government tell me what’s the difference between me getting 10% wef July 1 or January 1, cause as far as I know 10% can only be 10% regardless of when its effective from. The only thing I’m not gonna be pleased with is that my back pay which is one off will be smaller but the 10% which is continuous will remain on my salaries. What you critics should do is tell Jagdeo to shut up and go to parliament where he can properly serve those of us who actually voted for the PPPC
BJ to my knowledge is a modern day economist and a man with some political skills up until 2011,for some reason since then he has become a very sad story,speaking with so much ignorance,and so much arrogance i find it hard to believe this was the man who marked his name on the international seen by a trip to iran and yet managed the political heat.first Mr if you want to criticize the budget please do so as an economist not speaking as though you are an illiterate.remember there are people watching you not only locally but internationally
I mean he do not support the projects he claims was all part of the PPP plan.
Have you noticed the only thing he supports is money for sugar workers and rice farmers. He do support the projects he said was all part of the PPP plan. This man is confused.
Dutty rACIST,CON ARTIST jAGDEO,WHA THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???YOU ARE JUST EMBARRASED BY THE WAY YOUR GOVT HAVE RUINED THIS COUNTRY DURING YOUR 23 YRS OF CORRUPTIoN IN OFFICE.MR JORDAN IS A MAN OF INTEGRITY AND CLASS.what have you done for the guyanese people?nothing but to divide them along racial line.YOU RACIST BASTARD.GO KICK BRICK AND THERE WILL NO LONGER BE A ppp govt.
The biggest “dupe”…he said he was legally married and had a wife!
Well send mr. President. Teach them how to run a country.
To those idiots who can not think for themselves, go to the neutral corner, go and GOOGLE the history of Guyana GDP. ..then you GENE deficiency folks who love to talk shit look and see the statistics of the UN and World Bank. .then tell me who are the retards hat took our beloved country to the Begging bowl
Jagdeo and the entire PPP should be the ast to talk about duping. What did they do in their 23 years. Full their own pockets and didn’t give a damn about the rest of the country. STFU.
It’s more than duped.. it was all gaff.. just to ensure power.. I expected guyanese would have voted better but it’s just a sad tale of high expectations and no rewards..
How much increase have you given to Guyanese in 23 years….STFU!!!
“A fresh start to deteriorating standards of living in a destroyed economy.” I just got to ask this question, Who Destroyed the Economy? was not this done in the past 23 years?