Leadership and the mess we are in

Apr 01, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Many theories are being bandied about as to why the government is stumbling from one controversy to the next. It seems that with each week that goes by, a new scandal breaks out.
Recently, there was the small matter of the request for approval for a $605M procurement of drugs for the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, for which no commission of inquiry has been established.
Then last week another controversy broke out over alleged comments made by the Attorney General in court. No commission of inquiry has been established. Then we read this week about a major problem with medicines on the Essequibo.
What will next week bring?
But before we get there, it was announced that the government has established a four-person Commission of Inquiry into the alleged movement of a private vessel, some time ago, into Guyana’s waters. Why there is a need for a commission of inquiry into this incident and none into the $605M procurement at the GPHC or what happened recently in our courts, is anyone’s guess. Why is a four-person COI necessary for the boat incident is also anyone’s guess.
People are asking why when there are matters involving government ministers, all we are hearing is that explanations are being sought. But when there are other issues we are reading about the police being called in and commissions of inquiry being established.
And one train of thought is that this sort of double standard is what is responsible for there being a problem within the government every week. It is felt that if persons feel they are likely to get off with a slap on the wrist rather than a serious probe, then this will encourage the sort of conduct which is now being witnessed within the government.
But is leadership really the problem? There are some people who feel it is. They are of the view that if there was stronger leadership there would be fewer problems. They feel that if the President, in particular, had been firing more people, a lot less of what is happening would have been happening.
The theory that firings would reduce the number of problems within the government is not borne out by the facts. In Trinidad and Tobago, the former Prime Minister of that country fired a lot of her ministers. But it did not send the sort of message that the public had hoped it would have. In fact, she ended up being booted out of office.
It does not mean that a strong case can be made out for condoning certain actions. What it does suggest is that simply firing people without examining how government can be made more efficient is not the answer to a crisis in governance. Nor can the problems in governance simply be solved by changing Ministers, as some critics of the government and even some supporters of the government are suggesting.
The crisis in governance can only be solved if there is less government. The size of government is a problem. The number of agencies is far too many for such a small country. This makes the government unwieldy.
It also creates problems for management. Ministers are spending too much time having to mop up problems within their Ministries rather than being in the fields pushing ahead with projects for the people. Too much time is being spent behind desks firefighting problems rather than fixing the problems in the wider society.
The Ministers are part of a system which needs to be dismantled and replaced with a smaller government. Unless this happens, it does not matter who is appointed a Minister, the problems will continue.

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