Public sector employees spending power grew by $89.5B from 2020-2024 – PPP GS reiterates

Contrary to criticisms that the government does not have the best interest of public sector employees at heart, their spending power has increased by $89.5 billion from 2020 to 2024.

Speaking with reporters during his weekly press conference on Thursday, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo highlighted how the ruling party has implemented a series of initiatives to increase disposable income for this cadre of people.

He emphasised the significance of this feat, emphasising the government’s commitment to improving the livelihoods of employees in the public sector through targeted initiatives.

The general secretary detailed that these sums are allocated throughout central government, public enterprises and statutory bodies.

“This government supposedly hates the public sector. But public sector increases in this country have grown by $89.5 billion. Now, if you take out some taxes from that to talk about disposable income, …that is how the spending power of public servants grew in the last four years,” he stressed.

Fifteen thousand (15,000) individuals, who did not have jobs are now enjoying employment through the government’s part-time jobs initiative; this is injecting an additional $10 billion in the pockets of the ordinary people.

Another $10 billion is being exhausted to grant parents of school-age children a $45,000 education grant to offset their expenses necessary for their child to attend school.

Moreover, another $20 billion has been expended to increase the old-age pension monies, illustrating, yet another initiative geared to increase the spending power of Guyanese.

“You’re talking about $40,000 in benefits there alone, and then another $89.5 billion in growth in public sector wages. You’re talking about $130 billion….and this is only from the budget; this is only for public initiatives,” Jagdeo underscored.

According to him, these initiatives not only encompass the public sector but even persons within the private sector are benefitting from the intervention.

To back his point, he noted that another 50,000 Guyanese, who were previously without jobs, are now employed in the private sector, earning approximately $42 billion within a year.

“And you keep asking about how the disposable income has grown? What do you plan to do? We have done that. We have done it through various initiatives and the housing [programme],” he underscored.

A mammoth $200 billion has been invested towards the government’s extensive housing programme, to allocate 50,000 house lots by 2025 in keeping with its manifesto plan.

Dr Jagdeo did not hold back in criticising the media for their biased approach in reporting on the government’s initiatives and policies and for repeatedly asking questions that are irrelevant to national development.

“You can’t run a country every day storing the same issue. It’s a brain-dead sort of environment,” he stated.

He emphasised that while the government values accountability and transparency through the media, it must also adhere to the principles of fairness, honesty and integrity.

This is not the first time the government has had to correct the disinformation and misinformation in the public sphere following the opposition political parties.