By Svetlana Marshall

Hammering the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government over its handling of the country’s resources, Business Executive and APNU Candidate, Dr Terrence Campbell, told New Amsterdam residents that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Government will prudently manage the country’s resources including the Oil and Gas Sector.

Dr. Campbell was among the APNU Candidates that took the stage in New Amsterdam on Saturday night at the party’s rally in the Berbice area.

Campbell, who is a member of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Investment Committee, accused the Irfaan Ali Administration of squandering the country’s resources.

“I sit on the Investment Committee of the oil fund, and they would just send a letter and say, ‘we want $300M’ with no proper reason, and they spend it all out. They spent out 95% of the money we earn from oil every year. A few years ago, they said they want 75% and they got drunk on the money, and they gone all the way to 95%; every single cent of your money is being spent crazy by the PPP,” Dr Campbell said.

He said while the Ali Administration boasts of spending billions in infrastructure development, the reality on the ground is that citizens are left to contend with substandard roads and bridges, and ill-equipped hospitals that lack human resources.

Promising that the APNU will turn things around, Dr. Campbell said an APNU-led Government will save a minimum of 25% of the financial resources generated by the Oil and Gas Sector annually. 

“The APNU Government will save a minimum of 25% of our oil money every year, and in Ghana, they have the same mechanism like us. Oil money comes in, you put it in the consolidated fund, and you spend it but in Ghana they account for every single cent. If they build a dog kennel, they account for it. And the APNU Government will account for every single cent of the oil money that we collect. We will account to you because this is your money,” Dr Campbell said.

Warning Guyanese to take heed, Dr. Campbell said the PPP/C Administration has a track record of poorly managing the country’s financial resources. To this end, he pointed to the Skeldon Sugar Factory and the fibre optic cable project as among the many projects by the PPP that fell apart after billions of dollars were spent.

He said added to that, the PPP Government has been single sourcing billions in pharmaceuticals from a close friend of the Vice President, and still persons are being sent to private pharmacies for medical supplies.

The APNU Candidate said now with billions in oil revenues, the Ali Administration has initiated a multi-billion dollar Gas-to-Shore Energy Project, in the absence of a feasibility study. According to Dr. Campbell, the cost of the project is already climbing, while deadlines are being missed repeatedly.

Pointing to the country’s rapid economic growth, Campbell concluded that it is purely as a result of developments in the Oil and Gas Sector, and not as a result of the PPP/C.

“The PPP was in charge in 2013, and the economic growth was 5.2%; in 2014, it was 3.8%, it was already falling; by 2015, it was 3%. The APNU+AFC Government inherited an economy from the PPP that was in recession, and we had to stabilize it, and by 2019, economic growth was back up again 4.7%. And by 2020, and remember, APNU+AFC ran the country for eight months in 2020, and economic growth was 43.5%. Let them not tell you that APNUAFC was a waste of time that is not true, every government makes mistakes, and they made mistakes, but they did a good job stabilizing the economy,” Dr. Campbell said.

He said the APNU+AFC Government had created 15,000 jobs in the country, increased public sector wages by 77%, and improved power generation and supply in the country.

Going forward, the APNU is hoping to create 40,000 new jobs, increase the salaries of public sector workers, while raising the tax threshold to $400,000, and address the high cost of living through a number of fiscal measures.

Dr. Campbell said come September 1 Guyanese must make an important decision on whether it wants to see the prudent management of the country.

 “You have a clear choice to make, you have to make a choice between poverty and the fair distribution of our wealth. You have to make a choice between corruption, corruption with lands, corruption with contracts, corruption with GPL, corruption with the police force, corruption with firearm license, corruption everywhere, you have to make a choice between corruption and integrity. You must make a choice between justice or injustice,” he said.

He said as it is right now, there is nothing to smile about as thousands of Guyanese remain in poverty, and thousands more are struggling to make ends meet.

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