Business and Economic Commentary
Just over two years ago, nineteen female students and one boy died in a horrific fire that engulfed the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory. Within hours, Education Minister Priya Manickchand posted detailed Facebook updates from the scene. The government rushed to issue formal statements, dispatch planes, and position itself as the sole source of assistance, compassion and care. It even established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the causes of this horrific tragedy. A recent meeting of the Private Sector Commission of Guyana showed that the Government was not only interested in shaping the narrative and redirecting any blame, but also acted to deny the families benefits and assistance.
Horrified by the tragedy, nearly thirty million dollars were channeled through the Private Sector Commission for the victims’ families – a genuine expression of corporate social responsibility and human compassion. Persons from the leadership of the PSC decided, quite improperly, to share this information with the government’s leadership. Instead of matching the contribution or congratulating the PSC for this independent charitable initiative, the government inveigled the Private Sector Commission to withhold the donation. The government demanded exclusive credit for assisting victims, even if it meant denying desperate families the help they needed. Even charitable space, it seems, must be occupied by the government, to the exclusion of all others.
The PSC complied, burying this act of charity as a single, unexplained line item in its 2024 financial statements. This was a demonstration of staggering insensitivity to the PSC’s independence, but far more importantly, to the bereaved families’ suffering as an accounting footnote.
This represents a triple betrayal: of the families affected by the Mahdia disaster, of corporate governance principles, and most importantly, of basic human compassion in service to a government that only boasts how much it cares.
The Government’s monopoly on grief
Through programmes like “Because We Care,” the Government owns compassion, the tragic death of 20 children as an opportunity to burnish their brand. The hypocrisy is staggering. When genuine private sector compassion emerged to contribute thirty million dollars for the families, the all-caring government swiftly suppressed it. They could not tolerate competing narratives of care or independent expressions of humanity that might diminish their political capital from tragedy.
The Mahdia fire represented catastrophic government failure: children dying in state custody due to official negligence. Yet when private citizens attempted a genuine charitable response, the government saw competition rather than cooperation. Equally shamefully, the PSC’s compliance reveals an organisation that prioritises political favour over human decency, allowing political and personal calculations to strangle corporate conscience.
This capitulation reflects the PSC’s systematic capture over the past decade. The Commission has become a revolving door for PPP/C friends and family – a launching pad for loyalists seeking lucrative state appointments or government contracts. Senior PSC positions now function as auditions for government favours rather than platforms for service to membership and country. This may be an egregious example, exposed by the membership at an Annual General Meeting. By casually documenting their failure to assist grieving families, the leadership revealed an organisation without a moral compass or institutional shame.
The Mahdia families have endured compounded tragedy. Their children died due to government negligence. Now they may never know that thirty million dollars was raised specifically for them and deliberately withheld for political reasons. Their grief has been weaponised and politicised while their practical needs remain unmet.
A moment of reckoning
The AGM has given the PSC a chance to start on the road to redemption. The new leadership must distance itself from the unacceptable culture that has degraded the organisation over the past decade. The immediate test is clear: pay out the thirty million dollars to victims’ families immediately and tell the government to keep away. This money belongs to grieving families, not political calculations.
The Commission must also publicly apologise – to the donors who trusted them with their charitable intentions, to the Mahdia families who were denied assistance, to PSC members who were kept in the dark, and to all Guyanese who expected better. The PSC’s leaders were too weak and put political service above humanity when strength and compassion were most needed.
It must also call for and demonstrate a culture of independence, strength and courage that does not alter because of its new leaders’ personal qualities and values. The culture of the revolving door must be outlawed by the PSC’s constituent documents and a code of conduct that demands a Declaration of Interest and a Register of Interest. It must start setting an example of good governance by stopping blocking the introduction of a Code of Corporate Governance.
But immediately, pay out the money.