Government at work.

The title says it all, this week we’re really going to see the government working, they’ll even be putting in a few hours of overtime.

No guys, they’re not going to be addressing the flood situation on the east coast, nor will they be looking at the crisis at GuySuco or that sinking new road and bridge we have in the ancient county. This week the Government will be working to discredit the findings of an annual Wall Street Journal/Heritage report that has recently been released.

The Index of Economic Freedom World Rankings, compiled annually and globally, lists Guyana at 155, which is even lower than Haiti, which is widely regarded as the poorest country in the world. Guyana actually sits at the bottom of all countries in Caricom, and 27/29 in the region actually.

What it effectively means is that there isn’t much freedom for economic activity here, businesses are heavily screened, non-transparent (remember the Sanata deal) and licenses take forever to be given (except if you’re buddy buddy with the kings of this Country). The report also encompasses government size, investment, business trade and corruption.

The report also did not fail to note that for the past five years, all of which have been under the ever watchful eye of a trained economist (we know what kind of economics he knows) that we’ve only managed about 1% growth yearly, that is unacceptable. It is said that 57% of our GDP goes towards government spending, which more often than not were spent on poorly managed expenditures, and increased social spending, which ultimately does more harm than good.

The size of the government also received attention, notably so, why do we need a ministry of Foreign affairs and Foreign trade, why do we need two ministers of Education and why does Mr. President need all that advisers, who seem to give no advice, what the heck does LaPumba do?

Of course, the ever present Corruption was given honorable mention as well. According to the report, Guyana is the 123rd most corrupt country in the world, but I’m sure most of us already knows that. It is stated that corruption is everywhere, from the government itself to law enforcement and even the judiciary. Speaking of which, the judiciary was noted to be slow, inefficient and very much subject to corruption and the government is often accused of intervening in certain matters, again, we all know that and we all know who Carl Singh and a few others really work for.

The report was quite insightful and scathing, a lot of the shortcomings of the present government was highlighted, but they weren’t the only ones, the corrupt, incompetent customs officials also came in for severe criticisms, not to mention our extremely, burdensome 33% tax rate for workers and an even higher 35% for corporations.

Yes people, the government is going to work, they are going to tell us how the report is flawed and contain many errors, they are going to tell us that the country that the report comes from is no better than us, and they are going to tell us how better off we are now than during the 28yrs of PNC rule, they are going to tell us everything that they can think of the dispute the facts of this report, but they are not going to admit that anything written is true or even partly true and they certainly aren’t going to make an effort to correct any of the many wrongs listed.

Watch out people for your working government, coming to you via Guyana Times, Guyana Chronicle, NCN and a few select shows on Channel 65 and 69.

For the full report on Guyana, Check out here