The Dossier
Oct 09, 2016 , http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....10/09/the-dossier-2/
The opposition Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has to make the government look bad. The government has to make itself look good.
The main opposition has produced a dossier of alleged scandals involving the government. The opposition has enumerated 25 scandals so far in the first 16 months of the new administration. They could have listed 50.
They have restricted themselves to 25. They are doing their homework.
The government is not doing its homework.
The government has opened itself to criticism by its actions. It should not find fault with any of the 25 items listed. It cannot find fault. They should see each one as a misstep. They should see it an opportunity to improve their performance in the future.
The goodwill enjoyed by the government when it first assumed office has evaporated. The government has been uninspiring. They have not done anything that would evoke excitement amongst the population.
The cleanup campaign which was launched soon after they came into office turned out to be a cleanup campaign for Guyana’s 50th anniversary of its Independence. The government has been accused of another type of cleaning in terms of the staff of ministries. They opposition has not made heavy weather of this but in due course they will and the government will face further scrutiny.
The much vaunted return of local democracy has become a damp squib.
Local authorities have, in most cases, received less money from the new system of financial transfers than they did under the PPP/C’s system of handouts. In other words, local government elections have brought no benefits to the financial independence of local government organs.
The government has done everything in its power to show that it is worse than the PPP/C. The government is embarrassing its supporters. It has already been accused to not honouring its promises to the electorate in terms of public service wages and in terms of the Value Added Tax.
The government has been commissioning studies and then doing very little about them. The public is yet to be told about the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the conditions and benefits of public servants. The government has told the public what action it is taking to make our prisons safer and how it plans to implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the prison service.
The answer to everything now is a COI. A man makes an allegation into the actions of two members of the Broadcasting Authority and even before the government has taken any action to determine whether a prima facie case exists, it launches a one man COI into the allegations.
The government continues to be riddled with problems. The Head of the Board of GWI has submitted his resigned because, as he says, he will not be a rubber stamp Chairman. This statement suggests strongly that Boards are not being given the latitude, by the government, to do what they are supposed to do. The Boards are becoming rubber stamps and professionals are not going to stick around and tolerate that kind of behaviour on the part of the government. It is unacceptable and its shows that the promises about greater autonomy and the relaxing of political control, which were made during the campaign, were political rhetoric.
The PPP/C has therefore been gracious by only limiting its dossier to 25 items. That list could have been longer if the PPP/C has wanted to. But the PPP/C has made its point. It has shown where all the promises of improved governance and greater transparency by the coalition have been dishonoured.
The government has been shifty. It once said that it would not impose wage increases on workers. When, in its view, negotiations, with the GPSU broke down, the government said that its last offer was final and if not accepted would be paid at the end of October. The government has since shifted again and said that the negotiations are not over with the union.
A country cannot be run in this way. There has to be improvement. People are becoming apathetic. Young people are seeing jobs being given to retirees while they are struggling to obtain employment. The economy is strong, even if it is being buoyed by gold alone. It will not collapse. There is no economic crisis. There is no political crisis. So why is the government drifting from one problem to the next?