Latest update December 24th, 2024 4:10 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Higher up

Nov 01, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – There is a new two-word phrase making the rounds in Guyana nowadays. It is so simple as to be understand by each and every Guyanese. The phrase is higher up and it is loaded with meaning, most of them not positive. Because when those two words are used in Guyana, they refer to what is going on, if not flourishing, at powerful political levels in this country.
Higher up is what suspends, stalls, and stonewalls one Government Ministry and State Agency after another. It is the waiting and not knowing what is going to come down from above, and when things do come down, there is what can only be described as the jaw dropping and the unbelievable, because they are so shrouded in secrecy, so divorced from what makes sense, for what should be, but what is not, for some mysterious reason or another.
It should come as no surprise to watchful and knowing Guyanese, that money is involved. Usually, what comes down from higher up, after the long waiting (by itself suspicious), is about the awards related to big projects in either the hundreds of millions of dollars, or on occasion, billions of local dollars. From higher up is delivered the same old shabby and rancid story about contract awards, and those names that are known for expertise in one thing only; that would be the right connections to the right people wielding power in the right places. That is the best, and most proper, definition of higher up in Guyanas political society.
Higher up is bigger than General Managers of State entities, Permanent Secretaries in Government Ministries, Commissioners, and Boards of Directors. Higher up resides above and reigns supreme over the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board. More frequently than not, higher up is senior to, and larger than, Ministers and Cabinet members working hard and honestly to fulfill the many-tiered obligations of their respective portfolios.
By process of elimination, the lament of higher up then terminates in the body of one or two, but no more than three powerful political figures, who hold all the cards, have the only say, and are the only ones to make the decisions that matter. By default, higher up encircles the small handful that speak about clean governance and associated transparencies, about the ideals of democracy, then only to have those ideals neutralised by shoddy leadership practices on the ground. Sometimes, it is not even about big projects and big money [in the many millions]. Rather, it is about who should not get and, therefore, should be blocked, most inexplicably because they qualify ahead of others. And on the other side of such political leadership perversities, who should be favoured, because this was what was decided, and thus what should be with the usual sorry end of these ongoing shady stories.
This business about the decision-making power of substance residing higher up is not what Kaieteur News is putting on the table before the public. Instead, it is from those public servants who live with it, with the chorus of cries growing louder and broader by the day. Their official life, no matter how senior, has been reduced to the absurdity and impotency of no questions are to be asked, no pushback will be accommodated, and it had better be just moving along and following the unfathomable directives. We understand that some national undertakings are so expensive, so sensitive, that they belong in the highest tiers of study and analysis and decision-making in this country. We agree with that, and support that fully. But it cant be for just about everything that is material, including some which are not. This renders senior professionals, boards, even Cabinet Ministers as rubberstamps, and embarrasses them relative to what should be the extent of their duties and powers.
Notwithstanding, this is what passes for governance in Guyana, with a sheen of procedure and ongoing shrugs of shoulders. It is just the way it is, and nobody is willing to go against the powers and reach of leaders, who call all the shots, make the decisions, down to names and projects and programmes. Higher up is of bigger ones, one or two only.

 

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Semi-Finals line up set for Maid Marian Wheat Up Women’s Cup 2024

Semi-Finals line up set for Maid Marian Wheat Up Women’s Cup 2024

Dec 24, 2024

Kaieteur Sports – The Maid Marian Wheat Up Women’s Cup 2024 has reached a pivotal stage as four teams have officially advanced to the semi-finals, continuing their quest for championship...
Read More
Young Warriors Cricket Club fulfills its annual hamper project, compliments of Ishwar Singh

Young Warriors Cricket Club fulfills its annual...

Dec 24, 2024

Chase’s Academic lift 2024 KFC Goodwill Int’l Title

Chase’s Academic lift 2024 KFC Goodwill Int’l...

Dec 24, 2024

Remaining teams in the inaugural K&S/One Guyana National Futsal Championship receive new kits

Remaining teams in the inaugural K&S/One...

Dec 24, 2024

Capital FC, Hi Stars, Silver Shattas win as Rockstone draw to reach quarterfinals

Capital FC, Hi Stars, Silver Shattas win as...

Dec 24, 2024

Renuka, Mandhana consign West Indies to record loss

Renuka, Mandhana consign West Indies to record...

Dec 23, 2024

Features/Columnists

  • This is our city

    Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The City of Georgetown is stink, dirty and disordered. It is littered with garbage, overwhelmed... more

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]