Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 01, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a country borrowing from other countries, or from international lending agencies such as the World Bank and the IMF.
The most powerful country in the world has a deficit and owes other countries billions of dollars.
Sovereignty is not compromised when a country borrows, only when it surrenders its right to manage and decide on how the proceeds of the funds which it borrows are going to be spent. Sovereignty is not about having a relationship with other countries; it is about the nature of the engagements.
One of the most strident criticisms of the government of Guyana, especially the Jagdeo administration has been its almost total capitulation to foreign multilateral capital.
The government has gone on a borrowing spree to be able to complete the reconstruction of Guyana and to fund its development needs.
In many respects it had little choice other than to go this route. Long before the end of the Cold War, bilateral assistance had dried up.
Even the Americans which was so keen to support the Desmond Hoyte administration, pushed his government into the hands of the IMF, the World Bank and the Inter- American Development Bank, rather than offer any significant bilateral assistance.
Having to go to those organizations with your begging bowl, carries with it however, the responsibility to ensure that the conditionalities that are imposed and the terms of the exchanges, respect the right of a country to determine its own path and to have ownership of projects.
This ownership is important apart from the direct implications for sovereignty. In developing countries, invariably institutional capacity is often weak and therefore, there is need for any country to develop the requisite capabilities and not to become too overtly dependent on imported skills and expertise.
This has been on the main criticisms of the PPP government. It seems to have virtually surrendered its right to manage its own programs, deferring to the many foreign consultants paid from the foreign pursues with sums which the taxpayers of this country would one day have to repay.
This column has long called for an audit to be done of the foreign-funded projects, foremost amongst these LEAP, to determine just how much money has been received from overseas, and what percentage of this went to the consultants.
Experience has taught developing countries a better lesson. These foreign programs are aimed at supporting a vast network of consultants and at stimulating the purchasing of goods produced by foreign countries, instead of seeking to develop local skills and to support indigenous industries by ensuring that procurement of goods for these projects are acquired within the domestic markets of the countries receiving support.
For too long, Guyana has allowed this situation to persist and the greatest beneficiaries of foreign –funded projects are the lending agencies themselves and the foreign consultants which they select to administer the programs for countries such as ours.
It is time that a break be made with this pattern. It is time that countries such as Guyana, assert their right to ownership of foreign funded programs.
After all, this is not gifts being given to our people; it is loans, which have to be repaid ,thus, Guyana should maximize the ownership and benefits to its skilled workers and to the development of Guyanese.
Just what precisely is holding up progress in the British funded Security Sector Reform Program is not clear. The British speak about administrative hurdles.
The government on the other hand, is suggesting that there are problems with national ownership, another way of saying that the British want to have things their own way.
Perhaps a public debate on this matter, can become the turning point in our country’s governance, which will see Guyana having a great say in the design of foreign-funded programs, rather than has been the norm simply deferring to the foreign experts and funding agencies.
There would still be, however, a need to solve the present impasse. This should not be difficult.
The British should allow Guyana to administer the SSRP, but should tie disbursements to the achievement of certain agreed upon goals and objectives.
Since Guyana wants ownership which translates to having its own personnel run the program, the British should not object to this.
But they should insist that for funds disbursed ,there are timelines and precise objectives to be achieved and if these objectives are not achieved, then further financing would not be forthcoming.
In this way, both countries would win. The British which is interested in value for money and the government of Guyana which is interested in ensuring that as a sovereign nation, it is not dictated to.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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