Latest update December 18th, 2024 4:29 AM
Oct 08, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
In Ecuador, the Chief of Police resigned following the demonstrations which heightened the anxiety within Latin America and definitely within the United States that the government would topple.
The protests were over cuts in emoluments to members of the police. After things had subsided, the Chief of Police who was not at all involved in the exercise resigned because he accepted, as has been the case in so many places around the world, political responsibility for what took place. By stepping down he was not indicating guilt or misjudgment on his part; he could not because he was not part of the protests, he was accepting moral or what is called political responsibility for what took place under his watch.
In Guyana, the acceptance of political responsibility is an alien concept. Local bureaucrats are not keen to do so because they are not forced by the will of public opinion to hold themselves to a high principle.
It is simply unbelievable that after each of the major massacres – Agricola, Lusignan and Bartica – no senior official, not in the security sector or elsewhere, resigned as a result of these incidents.
When the Minister of Agriculture was killed, no one resigned. When the wharf at Supenaam encountered problems and had to be closed, no one resigned. When the NIS money went missing after CLICO collapsed, no one was asked to resign. The list is endless.
It may be too optimistic, but at least in the case of the murder of that schoolgirl, the Minister of Human Services and Social Security has accepted that her ministry was partially to blame, and she has indicated that disciplinary proceedings will be undertaken. This is good news. The Minister must be congratulated in setting a fine example. It shows that in at least one ministry, someone is willing to stand up and accept ownership of a problem.
It may however be asking the Minister too much, to step down in light of the fact that this incident took place under her watch. In other countries, there would have been such demands made. But we must say that it is a positive signal that the ministry has accepted partial responsibility and therefore is accepting that perhaps more could have been done.
Obviously, no one should expect immediate dismissals. Due process has to be followed. There has to be an investigation as to whether more could have been done by that ministry. The persons involved should however in the interim be sent on leave so as to ensure that there is no meddling with evidence. The probe should be undertaken by someone that is far senior in rank to those who are going to be investigated. If public servants are involved, it would be best if this matter is investigated by the public service ministry and those under scrutiny be informed that they may, if they so desire, seek legal advice. When the investigation is completed it should be handled by the relevant commission or authority.
If the investigation finds that the ministry was at fault, then it should also decide how far the buck should stop. It should decide how far up direct and indirect responsibility should reach. It should also decide whether, given the fact that someone died, there is a need for political responsibility to be accepted higher up.
A terrible mistake was made by the Jagdeo administration during the crime wave of not asking critical persons within the security sector to step down. That may have saved a lot of lives if persons felt that their future within the bureaucracy depended on them being held accountable for the state within the sector. If heads had rolled it may have caused a few head swings within our society, but may have encouraged those with authority to be more serious about their responsibilities.
When one hears the President saying that even if he has to get personally involved that the problems at GuySuCo have to be fixed, one has to ask why instead of trying to get directly involved, the President does not simply read the riot act to his minister who will in turn read the riot act to the Board of the corporation that if things are not turned around, heads will roll.
The problem that the government faces is that it cannot do this because a member of the Board may very well end up becoming the next President of Guyana and what a thing it would be if the entire Board was fired. And then again, suppose the President should get directly involved and the problems are not solved. What do we do then? Ask the President to accept responsibility and step down? Now that would be a problem would it not?
This thing they call political responsibility was not made for Guyana.
Dec 17, 2024
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