Latest update April 17th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 31, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
On two occasions within the past month, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Forbes Luncheon, has asked to be relieved of specific responsibilities. On both occasions, the President has refused to accede to the requests and has asked his de facto Chief of Staff to continue on.
In the first instance, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat had resigned his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Insurance Scheme. This was publicly announced. It was also publicly announced that the President had asked him to continue on at a time when it was revealed that the NIS had invested a huge sum of money in CLICO (Guyana) which has been placed under judicial management.
Then recently the British High Commission expressed some concerns about administrative hurdles in the implementation of the Security Sector Reform Action Plan, a process for which Dr. Luncheon is the government’s point man. Dr. Luncheon again asked to be removed from all responsibility for this project but his request was rebuffed by the President who asked him to continue. The Head of the Presidential Secretariat has since defended the government’s handling of the dispute, claiming that the government would not concede on the question of ownership of the project.
So we have had on two occasions, an offer by the Head of the Presidential Secretariat to step down and on both occasions, the President has shown his total trust and confidence in Dr. Luncheon by denying the request.
There is still boiling another controversy concerning the government’s Poverty Reduction Paper and according to the PNCR some 12M Euros (approx. US$18M) in funds is threatened to be withheld by the European Union. Let us hope that Dr. Luncheon is not the person responsible for this project also, because it could mean that he would have to ask to be relieved of yet another responsibility, and if this happens the President may find it difficult to yet again, for the third time, to refuse.
We are told that the reason why the Poverty Reduction Paper has not been submitted is because it has to be approved by the National Assembly. Since when? The government is not obligated to submit this paper for approval, unless of course, the European Union is insisting on this requirement in which case they can be accused of imposing a requirement of national consensus on an aspect of government policy which has traditionally not been subject to such political consensus.
The opposition in the meantime is claiming that no Poverty Reduction Paper has been laid before the National Assembly, and if this is true, then it requires an explanation as to just why this has not been done and more importantly, just who is responsible for this being done.
Guyana has already lost $1.6 B in funds due to late submission of the sugar reform plan. And the explanation offered by the government is incredulous. I would not insult the intelligence of my readership by offering it here.
There should be an explanation as to why the government submitted this plan some six months after the original deadline and three months after the extended deadline. The plan was supposed to have been ready by December 31, 2007, but we are told it was not approved by the GuySuCo Board until the final day of the extended deadline of March 31, 2008. Why?
The Guyana Sugar Corporation has some of the most highly qualified persons in their employ. They already have a strategic plan for the sugar industry. This plan is being implemented and thus it should not have taken much for the reform plan to have been prepared well in advance of the December 31, 2007 deadline. The sugar corporation also has been able to prepare half-year annual accounts and thus it should not have been a problem for the sugar company to have completed the plan required by the European Union on time.
Assuming, as is claimed that the Board of GuySuCo approved the plan on March 31, 2008. How does one explain that it took three months after for the government to submit this plan to the Europeans?
The question therefore needs to be asked as to if the problem we are encountering in terms of this plan, the Security Reform Action Plan and the Poverty Reduction Paper, is not a problem linked to the timely consideration and approval of these documents by Cabinet.
Why for example did it take three months between when the Board of the Sugar Corporation approved the plan and the time it was dispatched to the European Union? What caused the delay? Was it that it was not sanctioned by Cabinet in timely manner or was it that the Micromanager was not available to place the personal stamp of approval on the documents and decisions?
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