WHEN DIPLOMATS SPEAK, POLITICIANS RESPOND

Dec 25, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A very Merry Christmas to all the readers of the Kaieteur News. Santa Claus is the one who brings the nice presents. I am the bearer of tidings of concerns which will disturb your quiet Christmas morning, but not in that obnoxious way as those protestors who are taking to coming in front of your homes in wee hours of the morning.
This is blatant intimidation and should not be condoned. The right to protest does not carry with it the right to so invade the privacy and sleep of individuals, and those behind this sickening action should be rightly condemned
The Guyana people, and in particular the supporters of the People’s Progressive Party, have already expressed their discontent with the award of certain contracts under the previous administration. And while most of these contracts are legally binding, it does not mean that they are beyond review. They should be reexamined, especially those ones such as the award of a contract to extend the runway at the country’s main airport. The public only learnt about this after it was published in the foreign media. All of these deals and a great many in the various sectors need to be scrutinized, if only so that the public becomes more familiar with how their monies are being spent.
This is not to say that there is no good taking place in Guyana. A great deal of good has been taking place and the signs of progress are everywhere. Economically, Guyana is enjoying its best days ever and the people are now having their highest standard of living. So good are things that many people overseas are jealous, because they always felt that Guyana would eternally be economically backward, and given the problems that many are facing in North America, many of them now wish that they could come back here and enjoy.
Guyana does have its problems, but it remains one of the best places to live, and there is no other time of the year that this is appreciated than at Christmas.
But there are also signs that some of the donors, while respecting the progress made so far, are concerned about the pace of certain works.
Now there is also a great deal of self-interest involved here on the part of the donors. True, if works are delayed then it can affect the approval of future funds. However, for the donors, particularly from the European Union, if their paperwork is late – and it will be late if certain projects are delayed – then it means that certain funding is going to be delayed and this does not look good on the donor records since they are also judged by the number of projects they are able to approve and complete.
One of the local contractors has given an explanation as to why some of his projects have not yet been completed and he has cited the slow approval of duty free concessions. This has led to an unprofessional outburst from within the Guyana Revenue Authority which really should try as much as possible not to get embroiled in these sort of public spats.
It is not for tax professionals to be fending and proving issues in the media. It is for the political authorities to be able to defend the tax departments or any other government agency’s handling of a matter. The tax department should therefore never have placed itself in a situation where it became involved in an issue in which a contractor was responding to certain comments from the diplomatic community.
The government of course has to adopt a new attitude towards the completion of foreign-funded projects. It has to ensure that if there are slippages that these are investigated and explained to the satisfaction of the funding agencies who, in the present instance, would have been aware of the causes for delays in the completion of sea defence works but, who may be more worried that these delays could affect their own track record of assistance.
Quarrels are not necessary at this time, but the signal being sent by the donor community must be appreciated and there should at least be a response promising that greater scrutiny and management will be exercised at the level of the government.
This is how these concerns are responded to, not through one person saying that the delays were caused by the delays in processing tax concessions and the tax department responding with a whole deal of unnecessary and unwarranted information.
Now this might not be the sort of flowery commentary that you may have been expecting on a Christmas morning. But it shows that after the eating and drinking of today is finished, there is serious work for the government.

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WHEN DIPLOMATS SPEAK, POLITICIANS RESPOND

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