Pay salary hike, review budgeted projects now due to global crisis – former finance minister

Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 April 2026, 21:11 by Writer

Former finance minister Winston Jordan has recommended an interim increase in wages and salaries to help Guyanese cope with rising cost of living due largely to a spike in world oil prices.

“The government can consider paying an interim salary increase because the monies have already been budgeted…Don’t wait for December, as you would normally do, to boost sales around that time for your friends,” he said on KAMS TV, a pro-opposition social media outlet.

Mr Jordan said the government has a GY$9 billion “nebulous” cost of living allocation that could be activated.

While questioning the government’s “short-term” measures, he also floated the idea that the Irfaan Ali-led administration should review the 2026 national budget in light of the global crisis without significantly damaging the economy or its overall growth. “It is time – don’t let us wait till half year – it is time that we revisit the budget. It is time that we revisit the projects – all those projects in the budget- and determine whether it is feasible to continue at the same rate that you envisaged prior to the crisis,” he said.

He cited the need for flexibility rather than rigidity because of the significant increase in the cost of those projects.

Noting that the Men on Mission (MoM) project had been allocated almost GY$1 billion, he said the budget could be reoriented to “give people a bigger cash grant” and at the same time fast-track payout of the GY$100,000 existing grant.

With domestic airfares already up due to the hike in aircraft fuel prices, Mr Jordan also made out a case for the government to meet with speedboat operators about increasing their fares. “You can’t keep controlling the fares of these people when it might be unfair to them in terms of the increased cost that they have to meet immediately,” he said.

The former finance minister under A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), who was also a budget director under the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration, said President Ali had not said on his last social media edition of ‘Tea on the Terrace’ what would be done immediately and in the short-term to “attenuate the global impact” of the crisis.

Mr Jordan flayed the government for having no policy or public awareness and education strategy on fuel conservation.

No measure, he also said, was in place to tackle price gouging and alternative public transportation system.