The country suffers when leaders override gate keeping controls

Aug 27, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor

In good and bad countries, the wellbeing of its citizens is clearly defined by the control systems in place to ensure government work in the best interest of its citizens. In the countries with good functioning controls, the citizens are happier and more prosperous, than the countries where the Government overrides the controls for their personal gains at the expense of its citizens., the control systems  function as they should or they don’t regardless  which party rules and its’ political philosophy.

If you put a cat to watchman milk and want the milk to stay secure, you have three options, (1) you hope the cat is honest and doesn’t drink the milk. (2) you put a steel cage around the milk for security and (3) you let the cat know if it drinks the milk, it is the cat that will go in the steel cage as a consequence. As can be seen clearly, Guyanese have chosen option (1), the one with the least success rate when it comes for elected Government Officials to serve the people, and as such, Guyanese are paying dearly for it in the form of the dire condition of the N.A and other hospitals in Guyana, the one sided oil, mining, and logging contracts favoring only the foreign exploiters, the increasing wealth gap among the top elites and the masses due to widespread corruption, and the continuing decline of Guyanese standard of living in every aspects of their lives due to Government mismanagement.

If you dangle great power, vast wealth, and physical satisfaction of one’s desires, people will sell their souls to attain them, this is the tactic used by foreign exploiters of third world countries to gain access to the country’s wealth, especially if the leaders have this sellout mentality, this is why all the great prophets who wrote religion philosophy, wrote about temptation, the dangers and how one must combat it. Good countries don’t choose option (1) in the case of the cat mentioned earlier, they use the other two options to safeguard their country’s assets and citizens wellbeing, by having safety controls like an Integrity Parliamentary Commission whose job is to ensure elected officials follow the rule of law on and off the job. In good countries all parliamentarians have to submit their yearly tax returns and financial records to an Integrity Parliamentary Commission, they ensure any transactions with state assets have to obtain approval via vote in parliament, had Guyana had a functioning Integrity Commission, it would have not found itself in this situation with the oil contract among the other unethical government practices.

Other controls for a good functioning society, Government, and other state entities to adhere to regulations in fiscal spending, personal conduct and managing of state assets include oversight by, the Attorney General, the Auditor General, the Ombudsman, Monitory and Evaluation Units, Parliamentary Budget Committee, CRA, EPA, Procurement and Contracts Approval Personnel, Elections Commission, The High Court and Judiciary, Internal Affairs for the Police, Safety Inspectors, Health Inspectors, Education Officers, Building and Construction Inspectors and any person who works in an oversight capacity. These personnel mentioned are the gatekeepers and protectors of a country’s citizens to ensure Government, state entities and private corporations work in the best interest of the people who owns the wealth of the country, if these personnel are not in place or cannot perform their duties independently without pollical interference and without bias, then Government and Heads of State Entities abuse their power and the citizens suffer.

These protectors and gatekeepers must be fully funded and free of political interference so they can execute their duties without bias to ensure the control systems function, sadly for Guyana, since the Burnham days to now, these personnel were diluted with mostly ruling party followers who allowed leaders and state entities heads to override the controls, or were silenced for trying to enforce the controls, hence Guyana finds itself in the current situation with all its’ problems.

Unfortunately, these gatekeeping controls in Guyana continue to be weak, so expect more reports like the N.A Hospital’s, exploitative oil, mining and logging contracts, corrupted projects, parliamentarians and other authorities’ misconduct and negligence, as they seem to be no punishment for wrongdoings as no one is held accountable nor suffer any consequences. Come 2025 the leaders of Guyana’s resources and Government will come from the following usual suspects, Norton, Harmon, Jordan, Patterson, Ramjattan, Ali, Ashni Singh, Jagdeo, Bharrat, Edgehill, Brassington etc., if these gatekeeping controls continue to be weak and cannot function, it doesn’t matter which party rules, so Guyanese go figure, you can predict the future for Guyana if these gatekeeping control systems continue to be weak and ineffective.

Regards
David

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