GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Opposition Member of Parliament Saiku Andrews has launched a blistering attack on the PPP/C Government’s expanding involvement in commercial activity, warning that the state is increasingly using taxpayers’ money to compete directly against Guyanese businesses while neglecting the essential public services it was elected to provide.

Andrews made the comments at a PNCR press conference while condemning the Government’s decision to move Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) into the bottled-water business, an industry already populated by private manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

At the heart of Andrews’ criticism is a larger question: Why is a government that professes support for private enterprise using a state utility and public resources to enter markets in which Guyanese entrepreneurs have already invested their own capital and assumed their own risks?