Not again!

Aug 17, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

Word out on the streets is that the PPP/C government is planning to employ the former Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, and the former Minister of the Public Service, Jennifer Westford, as advisors. If this happens, the PPP/C’s nepotism would be indistinguishable from that of APNU+AFC’s.
With each passing day, the public is being bombarded with tales of APNU+AFC’s featherbedding. Political operatives were being bankrolled on the payroll of Ministries, some being handed appointments when they already had fulltime jobs, and others without bringing any requisite experience to their new posts.
The APNU+AFC used the Treasury as a cash cow. One ministry had a string of advisors and it is alleged there was no evidence of what work some of them did. Party activists were also handed jobs within ministries even though the staff cannot recall seeing them report for work. The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs reported that persons were being paid on a month-to-month basis but there is no evidence that they worked.
In one case, a simple research assistant was receiving a salary in excess of $300,000 per month, plus benefits. This is a case of overcompensation for a position of that level. In another instance, one man, already in receipt of a very attractive salary was receiving a duty allowance of $250,000 per month. Duty allowances for most public servants are capped at $10,000 per month.
The Attorney General Chambers is responsible for providing legal advice to the government. Yet the Office of the Prime Minister had a legal advisor? Why would the Prime Minister need a legal advisor when there is the Attorney General Chambers? The legal advisor in question is the wife of a senior executive of the Alliance for Change.
Another ministry had a four-member public relations department. Yet another ministry had a fulltime Public Relations Officer. Yet, there was a bloated Department of Public Information and an overstaffed unit which operated out of the Ministry of the Presidency which could have easily provided the same services. This is in addition to the political operatives who were gifted senior positions within the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and the National Communications Network.
The PPP/C, however, has no moral authority to criticize this type of featherbedding. They did the same when they were in office. The sister of one minister was handed three simultaneous retainers in the state agencies. Former ministers secured ministerial advisory positions, effectively allowing them to enjoy close to ministerial-level salaries and benefits. Others were appointed as ambassadors.
It is now being rumoured that Dr. Luncheon and Dr. Westford are likely to be reemployed as advisors to the government.  Both were part of the pre-2015 PPP/C government. If their services are so indispensable, then why were they not appointed as ministers? Why bring them in as advisors, as is being rumoured? It will be difficult for the PPP/C to convince the public that handing them jobs is not a case of nepotism.
Serious question marks hang over both individuals. Dr. Luncheon’s health is poor. He turned up at the PPP/C’s campaign launch rally in Kitty, in a wheel chair.  The public is bound to view his reengagement as a case of providing him with a state salary.
Dr. Westford, the former Minister of the Public Service, was charged with fraud. The charges were all dismissed. The Magistrate in her ruling said that the charges were all bad in law since the two accused were not public officers and therefore could not be charged for larceny by a public officer.  However, while the Court freed the two accused, no proper account has yet been given about the $600M which formed the subject matter of the charges. Until such time as the PPP/C can satisfy the public that the monies were never misappropriated but were properly spent, it should not contemplate reemploying the former minister.
The most egregious development, however, is the appointment of Bharrat Jagdeo as a Vice President without any ministerial portfolio. The Constitution is explicit that a Vice President must be a minister and therefore must have a portfolio. The public is yet to learn the nature of the Ministerial portfolio of Mr. Jagdeo. It would be extraordinary to have a Vice President as a Minister Without Portfolio in a country with a presidential system.
Burnham was a law unto himself; he went against convention and appointed ministers without portfolios, in order to create jobs for his loyalists. The PPP/C is looking to do the same.  Did we have a change or an exchange on 2nd August?

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

---

---