THE CRISIS WITHIN THE ERC

May 11, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Reports in the online media are that the administrative staff of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) met with the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), beseeching them to release funding for the Commission. This is a most disturbing development that will now raise concerns as to the future independence of that body.
This approach to the opposition was obviously done out of desperation. It was the combined opposition that cut the funding for the ERC and created the situation whereby the staffers were fearful for their jobs.
They were no doubt anxious about their future given that the opposition has cut funding for the ERC. And now facing the breadline, they may have become so desperate that they may have felt that their only recourse was to go and beg the opposition to spare them their jobs.
But in pursuing this approach, the ERC administrative staff may have done irreversible harm to public perception about the Commission’s future ability to be impartial.
It was a misguided approach by the administrative staff of the ERC. The Commission is supposed to be a constitutional commission and the staff in their orientation ought to have been guided about the need to always maintain a certain distance from the ruling and opposition parties. To protect the independence of the staff, it was necessary to avoid them having to meet with the opposition or the ruling party, and more so to meet to beg for the cuts to be reversed.
It will take some undoing for the administrative staff collectively to convince the nation that after having pleaded with the main opposition party to release funds to pay them, that the ERC administrative staff is not in the future going to be beholden to the opposition.
It was equally misguided of APNU to meet with the administrative staff, knowing what the consequences of any commitments it gave could translate to in terms of the future independence of that body.
The staff of the ERC which met with APNU has further jeopardized their own future. The budget cuts had effectively placed most of them on the breadline and even if the opposition now restores the cuts, then it compromises the independence of the ERC.
This leaves the government no choice, even if funds can be found which is doubtful, to ask that the entire Commission, inclusive of its staff, be reconstituted.
The government is not likely to have negotiated any restoration of cuts in a piecemeal fashion. The government was betrayed by APNU during the talks between the two sides on the Budget and thus it is clearly not advisable for the government to go into any piecemeal negotiations with the opposition. As such, if the opposition wants to reverse its mischief it will have to do so as part of a total package of measures and not by first approving the funding for the ERC.
In any event, there is now no basis of trust for the tripartite talks to continue. There is now no basis for any talks to take place, because the government can no longer trust the opposition.
The private sector has offered to meet with both APNU and the government on the budget cuts, but it clearly lacks the influence or the ability to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. The incomprehensible cuts by the opposition have effectively soured all hopes of future political cooperation.
The opposition by itself cannot restore any cuts that it has made. Any restoration will have to be made by supplementary appropriations, and it was the very opposition which early in the life of parliament had initially argued that it could only approve a supplementary provision if the spending could not have been predicted.
The AFC subsequently abstained and allowed the financial bills to be passed, but the principle upon which the opposition had threatened to withhold assent was never repudiated. The opposition’s position was that supplementary spending could not be approved unless the government established that the expenditure in question could not have been anticipated.
It would therefore be contradictory of the opposition to adopt the position that it will approve supplementary provisions for expenditure which were part of the government’s plans, but which the opposition jettisoned.
It would also be an empty promise for the ERC staff to be told that there will be no problem with the payment of their salaries. You cannot cut the entire budget of the ERC and then say that payment of staff should not be a problem.
It is a problem. There is no appropriation for these staff. So where is the money going to be found to pay them?
And by virtue of the fact that some of the staff went to beseech the main opposition party to pay them, they may have created some problems for the image of the ERC. While the administrative staff does not make decisions for the Commission, they form part of the overall body and therefore it is always desirable that they do no nothing that would compromise the image of impartiality.
A deal between the government and the opposition is doubtful at this time. But even if a deal can be made between the government and the opposition to restore funding for the ERC, there will be reservations as to whether the administrative staff is likely to be beholden to those whom they approached in order to save their jobs.

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