Tackling corruption will earn the Coalition better dividends than promises

Aug 03, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Corruption has silently slipped onto the back burner of the national debate. The Coalition, having successfully rattled its sabre on the Constitution to delay the inevitable – the holding of General Elections after being defeated in a confidence motion – seems bent on taking the nation into the uncharted waters of a constitutional crisis.
Having had their first vehicle (34 is a majority of 65) for delaying the elections derailed by the CCJ, plan B, House-to-House registration, has been set in motion in an effort to defy the timeline set by the CCJ consequential decisions.
On Freedom Day, the president went deep in his campaign bag of promises – pulling out a plan for free education from nursery to university. With some 90 percent of his promises from the 2015 campaign languishing in oblivion, it is difficult to see this one making an impact on the electorate.
The Coalition’s tenure from 2015 has seen the fees at UG rise exorbitantly, and this after culling the $10,000 per child offered by the PPP.
I don’t think the president could convince people to believing in his sincerity to change this 180 degrees. It’s a daunting task. For a start, the president would have score more points tackling the corruption plaguing the Education Ministry.
That Ministry has the largest segment of the budget and touches more people than any other ministry. To have corruption filtering down from it to the lower strata of society is more damaging to the psyche of the nation, because it touches deep into the sinews of the ordinary man and woman in a discriminatory way, irretrievably damaging the morals of the future generation.
Just a few months ago it was disclosed by Kaieteur News that the contract for the printing of exercise and text books were given to Guyana National Printers Limited (GNPL) in a manner that local printers felt were not compliant with our procurement laws.
GNPL sub-contracted most of the work to Trinidadian company at a high price causing a furore amongst local printers who felt that they could have done the job at a better price. Based on the price the Trinidadian company was paid, it could be inferred that GNPL got a lucrative deal from the Ministry of Education.
Local printers are still to get details of that deal. Secrecy in state contracts is suggestive of dishonesty! The local printers are yet to hear a word about this from the president, despite calls to investigate. Does his silence on this matter put him in realm of not caring about the nation’s education?
Whether it is sole sourcing or competitive bidding, failure of Government officials to seek value for the state’s monies is an act of corruption. The above action by the Ministry deprived local printers business and their workers’ jobs.
Let’s dress down a little in the same ministry. I understand that there is or was a circular, stating that teachers should not ask parents for monies but should rather seek to raise funds for curricula or activities by fund raising through the PTA. Has that circular been honoured? Parents are complaining of being asked for monetary contributions on a regular basis by teachers while monies budgeted are being blown away at the top.
We live in an economically depraved society. Fathers, because of the lack of jobs or whatever else, are running away from their obligation to their children. Thanks God for mothers, they constitute 95 percent of the single parents struggling to educate their children. These women and families where one parent work, in most cases earn way below the 60 thousand tax threshold. Why is the Ministry allowing teachers to extract five thousand or over 10 percent of their monthly salary at this time to register their children in a school? If this is policy, free education for nursery to secondary is rapidly becoming a myth! The president’s promise is a mirage on the distant horizon.
Rudolph Singh

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