V-Pac Rejects the Corrupt Status Quo And Calls for Real Solutions to Benefit Civil Servants and Lower the Cost of Living

Focusing on the disregard both the Government and the Opposition have for Guyana’s long-suffering civil servants, and the skyrocketing cost of living for everyone, V-PAC today stated money exists presently to pay every civil servant and enlisted military personnel double their current salary, as well as reducing energy and other costs without dipping into the nation’s oil revenue. These benefits can and should be paired with a complete overhaul of our income tax system that places a 40% tax burden on everyone making barely over minimum wage. However, the Government doesn’t care enough about the salaries of civil servants or the cost of living to collect the money and revise our tax system, and the Opposition fails to offer any solution to these problems.

“Under the current status quo, the Government intentionally does not collect certain import/export taxes to the benefit of a select favored few’” V-PAC’s founder, Dorwain Bess said. “These tax waivers cost the Guyanese people an estimated $300 million USD annually, if not more. That money could be used to directly better not only the the lives of every teacher, police officer, firefighter, nurse, enlisted man and others, but also the lives of every Guyanese as they struggle with current high costs of necessities. Instead, that money is funneled every year into the pockets of a select few who import and/or export products into and out of the country, yet pay no taxes for the privilege,” Mr. Bess said. According to V-PAC these issues are not new to the Government, nor to the Opposition.

V-PAC can confirm that about six (6) months ago, a letter was sent directly to the President and Vice-President, and shared with the Opposition, which exposed in detail these import/export tax waivers that deprive Guyana of an estimated $300 million USD annually in tax revenue. The Letter explained that this revenue could be applied directly toward civil servant salaries and also to mechanisms for reducing the costs of living. This is not a guess,” Mr. Bess said. “We have run the numbers in accordance with our tax Laws. These taxes are not being paid, and V-PAC’s entreaties for Government or Opposition intervention have fallen on deaf ears. In V-PAC’s opinion, they don’t care.”

Referencing the Government’s current media campaign to discredit the recent political activities of Mr. Azruddin Mohamed, Mr. Bess stated on behalf of V-PAC: “The Government wishes to distract our attention from current and massive bureaucratic corruption happening right now by focusing on as yet unproven allegations against Mr. Mohamed that are mired in the past. I think it ironic that the current Government seeks presently to condemn Mr. Mohamed with allegations of past tax evasion, as he works daily to better the lives of ordinary Guyanese, while the same Government, in certain favored cases, refuses to enforce the payment of import taxes for products entering the country. This is not a victimless decision. Every year, our civil servants live on the edge of poverty while the Government allows a select few to retain hundreds of millions of dollars.”

V-PAC observed that civil servant salaries could be doubled by a simple restructuring of our import taxation laws. “Sometimes the solution to a problem is not complicated at all,” Mr. Bess said. “Sometimes, all that is required is the good faith to justly enforce the law and collect tax revenue due and owing.”