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GOVT. SHOULDN’T BE RENTING ANY HOUSE FOR A MINISTER

Jul 08, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A Minister is a servant of the people. A call to serve as Minister of the Government should be seen as an honour, to be greeted with humility, without regard to the personal benefits which the office attracts.
The government therefore does not have to find a place to put anyone who it appoints as a Minister. If you are a servant of the people, you should see this call to serve as one which involves sacrifices, not to an entitlement to privileges.
If a Minister resides outside of Georgetown, it is reasonable for that Minister to ask the government to find quarters for them within the city so that they can get to work. But this is not an entitlement, more so if the person concerned is a junior Minister. The Minister should not expect the same facilities which he or she enjoys at home. A one or two-bedroom home is good enough. The Minister can go home on the weekends.
Ministers have been known to live outside of the city and to commute daily to work. Dr. Ptolemy Reid lived on the East Bank Demerara and drove to work every day. Irfaan Ally lived in Leonora and did the same. Mr. Dominic Gaskin, the Minister of Business lives out of the city, as does the present Minister of State, Mr. Joseph Harmon. Burnham lived at Belfield, but he used a helicopter at times to get to and from his home. But if one lives too far outside of the city, such as in Bartica or Mahaica it is reasonable that a request should be made for a residence in the city.
You cannot ask a Minister who has to work long hours to drive twenty or more miles to get home each day and to do the same to get to work. It is these conditions which should allow for accommodation, not a home, to be provided for a Minister who does not normally reside in the city.
A rent of $500,000 per month for a Minister, junior or senior, is exorbitant. This should not be happening. With that sort of monthly rental, the government could pay a loan to buy a high-end property in a prime location. $500,000 per month is six million dollars per year. Within five years, the government will end up paying thirty million dollars. Paying such a high rental is unacceptable.
But the government should not be renting any house for a Minister. The government has properties in Georgetown in which it can house its Ministers who need to be housed.
There are about twenty houses in Echilibar Villas – which Burnham took away from the Kissoon family. Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo lived there when he was a Minister. There are government flats located on Main Street, opposite State House. Clement Rohee once lived in a government house in Queenstown. Shaik Baksh lived in the government-owned flat opposite the Marriott Hotel.
There is no need for the government to be renting any place for any Minister. The government should have enough villas, flats and houses to accommodate its Ministers who live outside of the city. Why pay $500,000 when you can use one of your own buildings?
The question which needs to be asked is who are occupying these villas, flats and houses which are owned by the government. Are those persons whom the PPP/C placed in the government-owned villas and flats still living there? Should they not be given notice, if they are?
The government should publish the names of the occupants of the Echilibar Villas, the Government Flats and the other homes owned by the State. Perhaps there may be a vacancy in one of these which can allow for the government to avoid paying the high rental for a house for a Minister.

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