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LEAVE ME ALONE!

Jul 25, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News of last Tuesday reported that a number of senior officers of the Guyana Revenue Authority have proceeded on accumulated leave. This, it is understood, is based on a directive from the Minister of Finance who did comment to this newspaper as to the measure.
If it is a policy directive that all persons with accumulated leave should proceed on such leave, then this policy needs to be communicated through the Board of the Guyana Revenue Authority. It may have been but this was not stated in the article. A Minister should never be perceived as having issued specific directives to an agency, especially one that has a Board. A Minister should only give directives of a general nature, that is, policy directive.
If there is policy directive from the Ministry of Finance that persons with accumulated leave should proceed on this leave immediately, then this directive has to apply to all government agencies and not just to the Guyana Revenue Authority. One therefore expects in the next few days to learn about a number of other persons who will be asked to proceed on their accumulated leave
In this new dispensation it is important that things be done the right way. It is important that the PPPC not be given any basis to accuse the government of political interference. There have been reports that at least one political appointment has been made at the Guyana Revenue Authority but the exact source of this appointment has not been revealed so it cannot be confirmed who gave the directive. At all cost, political appointments should not be made within the tax agencies.
A Minister, of course, is free to make a political appointment as long as that person has reporting responsibilities to the Minister. There is nothing wrong, for example, with the personal staff of a Minister being political appointees.
It was refreshing to see that the Ministry of Business has advertised for a Personal Assistant to the Minister. This is a very good way to proceed. Rather than simply making a political appointment, the position was advertised.
On the question of the persons sent on leave, there needs to be some investigation as to whether the Board was in agreement with this decision. It is not always a wise thing to simply allow a large number of persons to proceed on leave all at the same time. It is bound to affect the functioning of such an important agency.
The Guyana Revenue Authority has had its problems with political control in the past and the present Head of the GRA has been in hot water over some emails which suggested political meddling within the GRA. But let us give jack his jacket or rather Khurshid his Khurshid. He has done a remarkable job in terms of collecting the revenues of this country. You can say what you want about the Head of the GRA but you cannot question the improvements that have been made in revenue collection under his watch.
The government is now awash with revenue because of that man and the job he has done. Whether he will continue on is something that the government will have to mull on.
There are many reasons why agencies usually send persons on their accumulated leave. For one, they may not be able to pay the person for the accumulated leave. But they do not have to. All that will happen is that the accumulated leave will allow the person to retire earlier than they planned.
Thus, for example if a person has two years accumulated leave, and that person is 58 eight years old, that person can proceed on two years pre-retirement leave. By the time that leave expires, the person would be sixty years old and it is time to retire.
There may be good reason why someone may not have been granted their leave or had it deferred. That person may have wanted their leave but it may not have been approved because of something that the office wanted that person to do. The person may have been forced to defer his or her plans for leave.
This is why it is unfair to send someone off on leave without that person having an input. Some people time their leave to spend time with their kids, some to undertake some work around the house. If you send someone off on leave that person may not be able to make the necessary arrangements to spend their leave the way they want to spend it.
It is their earned leave and you should not trespass on their right to determine how they spend it.

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