The political Permanent Secretary

Dec 05, 2012 Letters

Dear Editor,
As is customary we do not read the Chronicle of propaganda, distortions and untruths but our friends and supporters continue to send us pertinent articles from that pitiful paper that they think deserve our attention.
We were sent one such article written by one Leslie Cadogan who claims to be the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health. Well if this Cadogan person is truly Permanent Secretary, then he would be knowledgeable enough to be aware that a Permanent Secretary is a “non-political chief executive of a government department” based on talent and performance.
In many cases, the term of a Permanent Secretary spans the term of office of many Ministers, even from different political parties. It is clear that this individual appears to be operating like a political poodle of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal since his actions reveal a conviction to cash in whatever is left of his professionalism at the altar of political convenience.
Even the PPP members who function as Permanent Secretaries like Colin Croal (senior PYO leader and brother of Minister Robert Persaud), Nigel Dharamlall and Omar Shariff, would dare not violate the principled position of mixing their politics with their professional duty as a civil servant of the State.
But upon further investigation and enquiries from our friends in Guyana, we were advised that Mr. Cadogan was on the PPP slate as a candidate who contested the 2011 elections. This ought not to be but Mr. Cadagon and his PPP cabal seem to think that they are above the laws of Guyana.
Our common friends told us that this fellow allegedly said that from now onwards he will be making public statements in defence of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal in preparation for his weekly press conference as the newly minted HPS in waiting.
Well if he really wants to fill the shoes of one of the brightest men in the PPP, he must at least have the intellectual capability of Dr Luncheon since his public and alleged private declarations to date position him as a non-strategic political yard fowl.
If Mr. Cadagon wants to replace Dr Luncheon, then his lame duck defence of the current Minister of Health is not a great start to that career. We ask what is the track record of Dr Bheri Ramsarran? As head of the regional health system he lorded over the collapse of this system.
At the Suddie Hospital, for example, for months the operation theater collapsed under his watch and when it was refurbished, patients got electric shocks when they came into contact with the walls. At the Berbice Hospitals, more mothers have died from childbirth under his watch than any other time in Guyana’s history.
The West Demerara Hospital was dubbed a “death zone” under the new Minister of health’s watch as a result of the deplorable condition patients and nurses had to exist under.
The emergency room is a dance hall, the lab is not working and the dispensary is an active execution chamber with live wires dangling all over the patients waiting area.
To compound this matter at hand, the Guyanese public got a fine lecturing on the competency of the Minister of Public Service from this Cadogan person. Isn’t this the same Minister that successfully destroyed what is left of the public service by replacing tenured and competent professionals with contracted PPP incompetents?
Dr Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

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