Guyana’s Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo has not taken kindly to opposition affiliates labelling the country’s procurement process as being deliberately stacked against Afro-Guyanese contractors.
He expressed displeasure with an analysis publicised by several pro-opposition members that show the hog of state contracts going to companies owned by Indo-Guyanese. The startling expose was made by the Head of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), Rickford Burke. The political activist, who is often critical of the government, several days ago, posted on his Facebook page, “evidence” of ethnic discrimination in the distribution of government contracts.
He said that CGID-commissioned economists in Guyana found that Indo-Guyanese-owned companies are the largest beneficiaries of state contracts. He said that of the 288 contracts, totalling $32.1 billion, awarded so far for 2022, Indo-Guyanese-owned companies received $23.4 billion worth of projects. This, he said, represents 72.6 per cent of all government-funded contracts. He reported that firms owned by Afro-Guyanese received $2.2 billion in contracts, which translates to a meagre six per cent of all works in 2022.
However, Jagdeo is adamant that the analysis is flawed, urging Indo-Guyanese contractors, whom opposition members have listed as “government favourites”, to take legal action.
“They’re claiming that the contractors got work on those projects because they’re Indo-Guyanese, not because they had bids in and those bids were assessed on their merit. I would urge them to file lawsuits against them and let them (opposition members) go to court now and prove what they’re saying,” Jagdeo said.
The VP noted that any “proper” analysis would show that his government has done remarkably well in managing the country’s affairs to the benefit of all Guyanese. This, he said, is a deviation from what persisted during the Coalition’s five years in office.
Jagdeo said that the “first fact” is that the APNU+AFC laid off more than 7000 sugar workers, mostly Indo-Guyanese, without regard for their welfare. The VP was referencing the former administration’s shuttering of several sugar estates around the country between 2015 and 2020 in a bid to “right-size” the industry. He added that the public service is largely made of Afro-Guyanese and if his government had laid off 7000 government workers, there would have been a massive “hue and cry” in the country.
“When that was done (laying off of sugar workers), it seemed normal for most people. I didn’t see the outrage in the media – nothing! And the firing of the sugar workers was contrary to their own promise that they (APNU+AFC) made in the 2015 election [campaign],” Jagdeo said.
The VP claimed that his government can demonstrate “with numbers” that it did more for Afro-Guyanese during its current term in office and the 23 years prior to 2015.
He said that Afro-Guyanese contractors now make up 30 per cent of new firms that have entered the fray since 2020. The VP added that the Coalition had five years to create a more balanced core of contractors, but it did nothing when the hog of the contracts was being awarded to Indo-Guyanese-owned companies.
“So, the opposition is convenient… They used this jaundiced analysis to excite emotion among Afro-Guyanese by saying ‘oh, you’re being excluded from the contracts’, but now, more Afro-Guyanese are working when we took office, and we have more Afro-Guyanese getting contracts now,” Jagdeo noted.
Can the Afros build a fowl-pen that will last more than a few months?
Contracts should only be awarded to those who have the skills and not based on race.