Guyana’s accountability framework remains a disaster- Greenidge

Dec 28, 2013 News

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Despite efforts this year by the government through the Ministry of Finance to enhance the ability of several agencies to be more accountable and transparent, thereby boasting and improving Guyana’s accountability framework, the Financial Spokesman of the Opposition Coalition, Carl Greenidge asserts that the country’s framework still remains in a

disastrous state.
Just a few months ago, a four-day workshop was held at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Georgetown.
The “Building on Indicators Training and Evaluation Workshop” trained more than 30 public servants from the education, judiciary, legal affairs, health, housing, tourism, and finance sectors on the importance of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E).
Also of note, was the feature address of the Junior Finance Minister, Juan Edghill. During his presentation he stated that (M&E) is important for various reasons which include contributing to transparency and accountability of projects and funds through written reports.
More significantly, he said that the country’s accountability framework is “as strong as it can possibly be.”
To this day, this is a position, the Junior Finance Minister still holds firm to.
However, while the workshop and other efforts were welcomed, Greenidge believes that Edghill’s comments were conjured up some place far removed from Guyana as they were “disgraceful and erroneous.”
Greenidge said that it is unfortunate that the Junior Minister would make such a statement, “because the workshop on M&E would be of little benefit if it is being carried on the totally unrealistic assumption that our accountability framework is anything but a disaster and to this date it still is because of the corrupt acts by the government and especially that of NICIL.”
In addition, Edghill, at the conference, had told members of the media that the Ministry of Finance has been paying attention to two important ministries – Health and Education.
He said, “They are responsible for about $50 billion of our budget. When we combine the two with Housing and Human Services and examine what we are spending, we realize that our National budget has been allocating 30 percent or more to those sectors on an annual basis.”
Edghill said, “We will always admit that better can be done. We are not afraid to admit that we have made mistakes. We acknowledge that a lot of things have not gone well. We still have maternal deaths and that is of serious concern and we acknowledge that …”
Greenidge however said, “I am afraid that his perception that the country’s accountability framework is as strong as it can possibly be, is a reflection of his delusion rather than of reality.”
Greenidge said that if Edghill would take the time to read the annual reports of the Auditor General for the years 2009 and 2010, for example, he would find that the comments applicable to the Ministry of Finance, Health and Education and the regions tell an entirely different story from his.

He said, “The Health Ministry is a cover for one of the biggest procurement scams perpetrated on the people of Guyana.”
“The award of $1billion per annum contract to the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation for the purchase and storage of drugs for the Georgetown Public Hospital has long been a widely discussed scandal.”
“So much has been written on this case that the Junior Minister should have been ashamed to make that statement. There are also innumerable cases involving full payment for incomplete contracts and other forms of overpayment and payment in spite of substandard work.”
“As regards the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (IBRD) report, it pointed to the dissatisfaction with the quality of work associated with projects that are themselves appropriate to alleviating poverty.”
“The government is so drunk with power that the Public Procurement Commission which it agreed to establish, is now to being held hostage to the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) demand that the cabinet be given a de facto veto over the award of contract,” Greenidge asserted.
Greenidge stressed that as a consequence of that type of practice and approach, Guyana has been ranked as the second most corrupt country in the Caribbean for the longest while and that is the difference between output and impact.
He expressed that one of the challenges of making M&E effective is the generation and dissemination of information as the reports by the M&E unit are supposed to be semi-annual.
But the Shadow Minister then asked, “How widely disseminated and discussed are these reports? When was the last one produced?
He said, “As regards the process of M&E, the World Bank in providing assistance to the government in the past to help in this area has observed that Guyana’s ability to monitor and evaluate policies in general, and in the PRSP in particular, remains weak.”
“The PRSP details weaknesses in the statistical system, including the national statistics office as well as difficulties with coordinating activities across the line ministries and among government, donor agencies and Non Governmental Organizations.”
“In the case of education, they referred to the need for actions to increase teacher retention in the Guyana educational system and the reduction of teacher absenteeism.”
“They also spoke of excessive centralization and the need for local government reform and surprise, surprise the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in this case, pointed to the need to undertake a more extensive reorganization of the civil service, within a sustainable public sector wage setting mechanism.”
Greenidge said that the PPP politicians themselves need to draw on the lessons which the workshop is intended to convey.

 

 

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