Guy Dev Bk board -a gathering of heroes

592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

Guy Dev Bk board -a gathering of heroes

OPINION BY : GHK LALL October 2026

Just as I suspected. A Guyana Development Bank board of directors that fits the PPP mold perfectly. Some names that ring a certain way. Some faces from barren places. A dash of color. People in whom the party, the government, have confidence that they could see a cow, put a bell on it, and call it a crocodile. A board that looks out for the interests of the government first, so I think. A board not so dumb as to oversee the blatant, and not put a word or two in the minutes to attest to their pretense at independence, their commitment to the Guyanese people.

One from the commercial sector, another from another department of commerce. Does have a touch of the sleek. Who could have objection to these luminaries who know how money turns over, and how to turn it into other things? I don’t. For the record, I have had interaction with one of those stalwarts. Not a bad one, not an inspiring one. Guvment service is radically different from private enterprise. May all Guyanese, especially prospective borrowers, remember that little morsel of wisdom.

What to make of another who changed from a man for the people, to a man for the purse? Public purse.

To date, he hasn’t lived up to his weight, other than a willingness to take on double duty and deal with those who upset and unnerve Drs. Ali and Jagdeo. To that I may have to add, Dr. Singh another sharp ringmaster in this Guyana bank circus.

When there is a zeal for jobs that the fairer in the party shrink from doing, then I ponder how this thoughtful, innovative, and likely rewarding GDB will turn out. Rewarding for whom is the puzzle that is now being assembled. The management team will give the first clues.

Along the same lines, there is another GDB director who is growing in visibility, also due to past willingness to be a witch. A deformed witch hunter to be exact. I know, take that from me. Get a load of that! A witch hunter now reengineered as a bank director. When a citizen is prepared to contort and distort self, then it is an open question about how much twisting may be in store at the GDB. I must confess to being awed by the PPP Govt skillfulness in compiling this board. There are those from the private and public sectors. There is gender spread (to be interpreted in the most proper terms).

There is the Guyana rainbow, though cloudy at the edges. A bit too shaded for me. There’s politics and the potential for tricks. Notwithstanding the commercials about a friendly neighborhood bank that welcomes the impoverished, the lickerish, and those who represent nothing but political gibberish.

The invitation is public. Identify for me, please, the one instance, the one team, that made these political contraptions (banks that work as box-hands, but with a difference: no hand deposited) stand on their own. Then deliver to the people who could truly benefit from a straight talking, straight producing development bank. It’s the old story of Guyana: great potential, great regret. There’s the Wales gas-to-something, that has ended up being nothing, so far. There’s the great story of ‘review and renegotiate’ all contracts, only for hole to be found, and a house built on it (sanctity of contract). Whoever is willing to trust those still promising to be faithful to their commitments, that is their luxury, their right.

The GDB, like those mentioned, has potential. But, when PPP loyalists-new and old, fair and foul, stealth operators or guerilla fighters-stand guard over that bank, Guyanese are in for a ride. For their sakes, I trust that their seatbelts will hold. They could be in for a rough time. Lots of money and lots of love (in contrast to the late Mighty Sparrow’s experience). The story about to be developed is to determine who gets the hog of it.