Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 24, 2012 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
There are some who, in defence of the government of their liking, whether the PNC of 28 years or the PPP of 20 years, have made some truly bizarre pronouncements.
The latest example of this madness arose when the PPP government went before the opposition-controlled Parliament to get retroactive approval of some improperly detailed spending from the Consolidated Fund. The PPP went on a media blitz weeping and wailing. It caught a lot of sympathisers with that acting job worthy of an Oscar. Guyanese people simply refuse to think deeply on these issues.
It is time to put the actions of government in the context of your own lives.
Let’s say you have a certain amount of funds which you got from your pay. You have a budget. You stick to your budget, spending according to what you budgeted. The rest of the money is saved as an emergency fund. You try your absolute best to not go over your budgeted amount. So, why should government recklessly venture over the budget?
If you the consumer are cutting corners, walking that extra mile to find savings and scrimping to save for a rainy day, what gives government the right to spend your money like it is going out of style? If you can stay within budget and live within your means, why should government be allowed the liberty of spending with profligacy?
Would you like if your emergency funds are being spent by family members without your knowledge? How would you feel if all that you have scraped together to save disappears, and the crooked and corrupt family members come after the fact to tell you that they spent and squandered your money and want your blanket approval for their wrongdoing?
If you will not approve of that in your home and your personal life, why should you accept it of government? You don’t waste your budgeted money. You try to find the best price and quality that fits your budget. If you have to hire contractors to build or fix something, you watch them like a hawk and ensure your cost is not being increased for any reason.
Guyanese people are extremely careful with their personal finances, so why should they allow government to waste their hard-earned money they pay in taxes? Guyanese people are hyper-vigilant about the scampishness that abounds in our country. They try their desperate best to not be conned. Why should we allow government to con us? If we don’t put the crooked amongst us in the vicinity of our money and we try our absolute best to keep them away from our financial resources, why should we approve of government keeping crooks near our blood, sweat and tears in taxes?
We the Guyanese people dislike incompetence when it collides with our daily lives. We complain bitterly. We get into arguments. Yet, we somehow accept it when it comes from government. Many of us simply do not waste money when we build our homes, yet we have a convenient blindness to the government we support wasting our money building bridges, sea defences, roads, schools, etc.
All of us would have a serious fit if we give a family member X amount to spend on Y and they end up pocketing the entire amount or pocketing some and buying Z, an inferior product instead. We will all be raging like a bull in a china shop if we paid $1 million to a contractor to deliver 100 feet of PVC pipes and he delivers 50 feet of rusted old iron pipes. Or if that new bridge we built to our house collapses two weeks later. We would be enraged and livid. We would want our money back and seek a better contractor. We would go to war.
So why do we accept it from government?
People are too poor and work too hard for their money in this country for it to be squandered. Government should not be allowed to do what we do not do in our daily lives. If you practice accountability and transparency in your daily lives, what is wrong in demanding that government does the same?
The lack of transference in the general Guyanese population is what is killing this country and encourages its continued pillage and wreckage. In developed countries, people think of government in these terms. They think of whether government is managing their home (the country) in the manner they are running their home or would like to optimally administer their personal finances. The citizens actively compare the performance of government against their personal performance and their own needs and desires.
When government comes up short, they kick it out of office. It is that simple for them.
Fiscal impropriety is enough to send a government into exile, because in developed countries the people realise something we haven’t as yet; money truly matters. They know that a government that wastes and corrupts public money into select pockets will be unable to provide services and amenities for them. They would have to pay out of their own pockets to fill the void caused by those living in mansions. They make a moral decision that they simply will not pay twice. They will not pay 33% income taxes, 16% VAT, 5% NIS and percentages for bribes, corruption payments, etc and yet still have to pay out of their salaries to grill their homes, build higher fences, buy pitbulls and hire armed guards for their security.
Many in this country are being double taxed by way of corruption, incompetence and waste. Start thinking, people of Guyana.
M. Maxwell
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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