Migration figure 'clearly wrong'
-USAID
Stabroek News
February 2, 2004
USAID Director Dr Mike Sarhan, at a public forum on Friday accused the Stabroek Business editor, without naming her, of irresponsible reporting in an editorial [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] about the exodus of skills.
Sarhan, in opening remarks at a workshop to launch a further study commissioned by the US Agency for International Develop-ment (USAID) on the subject of remittances, said he was disturbed [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] by the data published in the editorial. He argued that while the topic was timely and very critical in addressing the brain drain, the figures used in representing that argument were "clearly wrong" and were not sourced.
"...Because of that, the credibility and value of the piece was eroded," Sarhan said. While not directly naming the editor, he denied her the right to respond.
But Stabroek Business editor, Gitanjali Singh, says the data in the editorial is taken from the World Bank's final report [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] reviewing Guyana's development policy and was also the basis of the lead story [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] in the Stabroek Business two Thursdays ago. She also said that even if 50,000 persons did not migrate in 2000, the thrust of the editorial was about the exodus of skills, estimated at 77% of Guyanese with a university degree, and finding ways to retain these skills. She noted that at the forum on Friday, Dr Percy Hintzen, Professor of the University of California at Berkeley and report discussant cited the very finding that over 70% of Guyanese with a university degree were leaving.
"I find it strange that Dr Sarhan would choose a public forum to cast aspersions on the credibility of those figures when those very figures were used as the basis of the lead story in the January 15 Stabroek Business `Migra-tion threatens Guyana future growth - World Bank' and USAID never sought to correct that report," says Singh.
Singh says she finds it more alarming that she was denied the right of reply to Dr Sarhan's comments/criticisms at the public forum. At the same forum Dr Sarhan told Enrico Woolford of the Guyana Press Association (GPA) that he had not identified the Stabroek Business editor in his remarks and as such he did not believe that Singh should be given a right to respond.
Sarhan at the forum said he recognised the importance of the media and the critical role it played in educating the public and on improving their awareness on social, political and other issues and exhorted them to adhere to the highest standards of reporting and analysis as there is a critical role for the media to play in a democracy.
The Government Infor-mation Agency (GINA) also in a release [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] said Stabroek Business had based its report on inaccurate figures which had been corrected earlier. But the GINA release referred to 2002 when the figure contained in Stabroek Business cited 2000.
In December 2002, USAID issued a press release correcting [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ] what it said was an error in the draft report on remittances to Guyana which had "mistakenly indicated that there are 50,000 Guyanese expected to migrate in 2002." The author Dr Manual Orozco said at the time that it was a typographical error as he was unable to obtain an accurate figure that could be substantiated.
This figure was not included in the final report.
Meanwhile the World Bank said on page 37 of its final report released in late 2003:
"Guyana has one of the highest net migration rates in the world. With the deterioration of economic and social conditions, people are increasingly looking abroad for improved opportunities. A conservative estimate is that 77% of those with a university education in the mid-1990s have moved to the United States. (Carrington and Detragaiche). In one decade, it is estimated that migration increased by nearly 150% with 50,000 people leaving Guyana in 2000. At present trends, nearly one of every ten Guyanese will be leaving the country each year by 2010."