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THE SECOND WAVE OF CONSTRUCTIVE DISMISSALS!

Dec 20, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The sending on leave of the Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, on the grounds that an audit is to be conducted at that agency, has confirmed that a second wave of dismissals is in store. The first wave took place soon after the new government came to power when persons were sent on administrative leave, a new way of saying that they will not be returning.
This sending home of persons on leave has created uncertainty within the public sector. It has led to insubordination, since some persons are of the view that the days of their superiors are numbered and therefore the superior’s authority can be flaunted. Friends of top government officials have been strategically placed within government agencies, as this has been seen as part of the succession planning, since they are likely to take over from those who have been sent in administrative leave.
Sattaur is not coming back! You can bet your dollar on that!
The question though has been why he was retained for the seven months since the new administration took power. The answer to that question is simple. He was being used. He was being used for his knowledge to ensure a smooth transition of power and help the political apparatchiks to settle in and learn from him.
This has been a smart strategy.  Make the incumbents feel that their jobs are secure while they train the inexperienced political appointees and then drop the hammer on them.
All the talk about professionalism in the public service is hot air. What professionalism? Military personnel are being positioned within public service agencies? What experience do these persons have in operating under public service rules?
They are products of ‘command and obey’ training within the military. They therefore need orientation in working within the public service.  Persons were strategically placed within the Guyana Revenue Authority soon after the new government came in.
Political appointees, some of them retirees, are being placed all over the public service. They are not being placed there as watchmen or even watchdogs. They are being placed there to gain experience so that they can eventually take over the operations of the Guyana Revenue Authority.
What is stranger about the sending on administrative leave of the Commissioner-General is that he is reportedly being sent on leave in order to facilitate an international audit of the Guyana Revenue Authority.
But have the auditors been identified as yet? Have their terms of reference been drafted as yet?  And is it not the same auditors who have to decide who should be sent home so as not to interfere with the audit?
The question therefore is who and why decided that Sattaur should be sent on administrative leave? The audit has not started, yet the head of the agency is being removed. What is the justification for that?
One would have assumed that rather than sending the head home, he should have been kept on to help the auditors understand the system and to obtain the sort of information that is needed? The Board needs to justify its actions in this regard.
Also, the Board needs to explain why it is that it is only Sattaur that was sent home to facilitate the audit. The government needs to explain why it is that another Sattaur alone was sent home from the Land Registry? Why it is that the Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Hospital was alone sent on administrative leave? Why it is that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health was sent on leave? Why it is that the top manager alone of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission was sent on leave? How it is that no one else is being sent on leave from each of these agencies?
When other public officials notice what is going on they will be afraid of losing their jobs. Their professionalism will be undermined. The entire public service will suffer from the migration of skilled personnel, because professionals are not going to hang around to be used, only to be later dumped by the ruling administration.

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