Prime Minister Phillips knows better

Dec 07, 2024 Editorial, News

…Editorial

Kaieteur News- Prime Minister Mark Phillips knows better, had to have gathered the experience to deliver, on promises made. The prime minister is not an ordinary Guyanese holding that senior position in government, which ranks him just after the president in weight and power. We say this because of Mr. Phillips’s long history in Guyana’s army. As a retired Brigadier General, Mark Phillips through his years must have had some type of respect for not promising what cannot be delivered, for one reason or another. It is why he reached so high in the local army. Guyana’s army fosters that level of regard for order, promotes those who show that they can go above and beyond. A brigadier general is more than of a man and his sparkling uniform; it is a rank that speaks of an officer and a gentleman.

Relative to the US$2B Wales gas-to-energy (GTE) project, Prime Minister Phillips has been a shadow of himself, a thin and shaky one. He promised more than once to produce some of the documents that form the guts and sinew of a project that has been shrouded in dispute and controversy from the time it has been born. The first instance of the number two man in the PPPC Government promising to lay before parliament was on January 30, 2024. It was Opposition MP, David Patterson, who pressed the prime minister for information on the $5.49B discrepancy in the $73B GTE expenditure for 2023. Despite a letter dated April 2, 2024 from the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, to Prime Minister Phillips, the information has still not been provided.

On May 9, 2024, some three months after the first promise, and during a session in parliament, Prime Minister Phillips was in the same precarious place: “I am not in a position to give any updates on the Gas-to-Energy project. The last thing I know is that everything is going as planned.” This was from the senior government man that Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, was quick to point to, with the “PM office is responsible. It’s under PM office.” Frankly, this is unacceptable. For we believe that the prime minister must know that he started looking rather shabby as early as May, seven months ago, if he is given a pass on January.

One of the many mysteries of the Wales GTE is how much the prime minister has been cushioned, or insulated, from facing the music on the US$2B project. The chief architect of the GTE is Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and when he doesn’t lose his tongue, he loses his head at reporters. It is his pet project and he is comfortable concealing most of its documentary support behind a wall of bluster. Moving forward, as if part of a tag team and on cue, Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, has some strange ideas about what the speakership role represents. Efforts by the parliamentary opposition to obtain needed information from the PPPC Government about the GTE have encountered a bulldog in Speaker Nadir. Anything that remotely resembles the threatening relative to the GTE has not passed the Speaker. None of this is making any sense. It pushes all those compelled by circumstances to play defensive roles look worse than woeful. We are of the view that who is not dodging is playing delaying games with this GTE project. For a project costing US$2B, Guyanese deserve better, are due the courtesy of more than basic honesty. For all intents and purposes, all of this have fallen on deaf ears in the government. Dissemble and do not deliver appear to be the mantra followed.

It is now December, an eternity from January, and there was Prime Minister Phillips making his third commitment to produce (lay over) in parliament what is being asked for by the opposition. It must be recognized that he had the courtesy to tender an apology, which might be all that he can deliver presently. We have this last point to make before the incumbent prime minister and retired brigadier general: what would have been his reaction to subordinates repeatedly falling down on promises, clearly in dereliction of their duty to the army and country?

(Prime Minister Phillips knows better)

apology, Editorial, National Assembly, Prime Minister Phillips, Wales Gas-to-Energy

Latest News

Prime Minister Phillips knows better

…Editorial

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 20th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

West Indies U19 Women secure first win, advance to Super Six with...

“We will have a similar approach”

Sam, Fernandes outshine competition at GCF/Moo...

Ramzan, Fraser pilot Demerara U15 to strong win...

Dave West Indian Imports gets Everest Cricket...

Interim leadership agreed to dissolve GCF...

Features/Columnists

Berbice and Jagdeo’s legacy

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Ministers and business ownership

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Prime Minister Phillips knows better

…Editorial

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 20th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]