…moves being made to give laptops to friends, cronies — PPP/C

By Kristen Macklingam

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on Monday whipped the David Granger Administration for implementing anti-poor

PPP/C General Secretary Clement Rohee

policies as it rejected the notion that when it was in power there was consideration for raising the salaries of its Ministers and Presidential Advisers at the expense of taxpayers and distributing laptop computers to its friends and cronies. PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee, during a media briefing, explained that his Party would never think about increasing monies for themselves against raising the salaries of public servants. He emphasised that the new A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government should not be considering a raise in pay for its members since such a move would lead to repercussions that Government would be forced to face for many years. Guyana Times was told that such talks or consideration should not be implemented under the Granger-led Administration especially because the performance of these Ministers cannot be evaluated as they have only been in office for about 10 weeks thus far. Although Government has acknowledged that it is considering increasing salaries for its Ministers, Advisers and all Members of Parliament, there has been no official announcement about any figures which would represent these increases. However, Rohee lashed out at the Government stating that when he was serving as Home Affairs Minister he earned $579,000 monthly and was “quite satisfied with that”. Though his allowances were minimal, he was still satisfied, he said. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Joseph Harmon had told the media that the move to pay officials a better salary would assist in stamping out corruption. Rohee on the other hand refuted this notion, citing that a person’s character determines whether or not he can execute his duty honestly and with decency. He further noted that the said belief has never been proven to “keep hands out of the cookie jar”. Previously when APNU and the AFC were in Opposition, they had protested the ‘enormous’ and ‘unreasonable’ salary of the PPP/C’s Government officials. Ironically, the coalition may officially announce massive salary increases for its officials.

Laptops for families, teachers Meanwhile, the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) Project which was started under the PPP/C Administration will most likely be renamed “One Laptop Per Teacher” as the APNU/AFC Government recently announced that the laptops would no longer be given to children and their families but to teachers. Government is expecting a batch of 10,000 laptops shortly and has stated that they would be distributed to teachers nationwide to allow for the enhancement of teaching skills and delivery in the classrooms. The PPP/C General Secretary stated that these laptops which were ordered by the then PPP/C Administration cost US$8 million. Already 55,000 laptops have been distributed by the former Government to children throughout the country with the aim of enhancing research and learning approaches in academia and general social studies. It was expected that such a move would allow the achievement gaps between children of poor or working class parents and those of high-income families to be narrowed. Rohee stated that while Government would now be implementing changes in the programme, it needed to make public its “well thought- arrangement” about the distribution process. He added that Minister of State, Joseph Harmon had stated that the PPP/C’s OLPF programme was a ‘massive fraud’. “Yet this initiative was not highlighted for a forensic audit. Further, Harmon walked into a storeroom full of laptops suddenly and determined that 10,000 were no good. Harmon is probably the best stand up auditor to determine which laptops were good and which were bad,” the PPP/C’s General Secretary said. “These unsubstantiated declarations and unilateral moves by the Granger Administration are deeply suspicious and convey the impression that excuses are being made to secretly hand over laptops to friends and cronies of the APNU/AFC Coalition.” He called on the APNU/AFC Government to explain the methodology it intended to use for distribution of the laptops to teachers, schools and communities and to also explain the nature of its “community-based” theme and the socio-economic criteria to be used for selecting communities. Meanwhile, as it relates to the establishment and funding of the Office of the Opposition Leader, Rohee stated that he was not in a position to answer this. However, he noted that he expected it to be around the same figure that the PPP/C had allotted to the then Opposition.