The EPA, micro-management and the EPA

Sep 28, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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This is not, and in the foreseeable future, will not be an easy country to administer. Guyana is fraught with structurally profound problems.

Those structural problems become insurmountable because another set of dilemmas exist and intertwined with them are political labyrinths.

Against this background, there is a pressing need for competent political appointees and a visionary president. The dastardly characteristic about Guyana is that an effete administrator compounds the problem.

If you are going to put a poor manager to run an important industry that is ailing, then managerial ineptitude is going to lead to collapse.

Apart from sticking to the old political culture which is at the heart of the impending collapse of the economy, the PPP has not made encouraging appointments.

Locked in a spiral of incestuousness and paranoia, non-performing administrators are replaced with new bottles containing old wine.

The style is ubiquitous. All over the public sector you see this pessimism. As soon as a non-performer goes out, he/she is replaced with a party cadre and the cycle goes on.

In the midst of this madness comes the dagger of micro-management. I read what Major-General Joe Singh said about Forbes Burnham on the observance of the death anniversary of the former President. He told his listeners that Burnham asked him to run the Guyana National Service (GNS) and allowed him full reign.

It is not that Burnham was a democratic guy. He was instinctively authoritarian. But Burnham was an astute leader with rivulets of practicalities overflowing in him.

I have heard many stories from respected Guyanese who do not think highly of Mr. Burnham but who frankly admitted that he allowed the latitude they thought he wouldn’t in running their respective sectors that the state controlled.

Burnham knew Joe Singh could do for the GNS what he, Forbes Burnham, couldn’t do for it. So he allowed Singh the sovereignty that brings success.

Now Burnham would have knocked off Joe Singh, if Singh was seen in the company of the WPA or making statements about democracy in the Catholic Standard. But if Singh operated with political reality, Burnham would have respected his (Singh’s) sphere.

One would like to think that this is commonsense in the execution of leadership. Unfortunately and sadly, presidential micro-management is a characteristic of the Government of Guyana that everybody talks about.

Last week, President Jagdeo met with the entire staff of the EPA – Environmental Protection Agency – for many hours. Formalities dominated the dialogue.

The staff was asked how they are doing, if they like their job, do they represent the interest of the country when they attend conferences abroad and other jejune frivolities.

Why not leave those chats to the subject minister? Even if important items were to be explored, the subject Minister should have been assigned that endeavour.

This is a hard country to run. President Jagdeo’s plate is filled with intractable problems, two of which are extremely frightening – the imminent stagnation of both the GPL operations and the new sugar factory at Skeldon. Why use precious time to have a tête-à-tête with the EPA?

I am extremely doubtful that Mr. Jagdeo will be given a third term so he has slightly over two years to carve out a legacy.

Surely any president that has served three Westminster terms in office (12 years) should leave an indelible mark on the landscape of his country. At the moment, there are no signs that Mr. Jagdeo will stand tall in people’s memory as Jagan, Burnham, and Hoyte do.

Time is still left to go down in history. What Mr. Jagdeo needs to do is to abandon the micro-management route and select three vital areas of Guyanese life, a fundamental change which will catapult him into history.

The other EPA interest of the President (Economic Partnership Agreement) may have suffered because of his micro-management tendencies.

Almost one year ago, top regional scholars were exposing the holes in the EPA. Mr. Jagdeo should have ditched his over-stretched energies and concentrated on plugging those holes.

Had he done that, the EPA may not have been what it is today. But millions of projects got in the way of the President. It is called micro-management.

I would suggest that glory is waiting for President Jagdeo if he relinquishes his myriad of portfolios and dedicate himself to three ventures.

One is the reshaping of the judicial system that will bring democracy to this nation. Litigants should get redress soon after they approach the courts. Concentrate on the electricity supply. No government is safe if a country faces constant blackouts.

Blackouts demoralize every citizen who endures it. Thirdly, dedicate time, energy and money to restoring the glory of UG. Mr. President, forget about running your Ministers’ ministries.

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