The ruling coalition has given the PPP a life line

OCTOBER 20, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

There is a missing link in the salary increase for Ministers that no one has discovered as yet. Obfuscated in the vortex of chastisement is the graphic emblazonment on the take-home pay packet of the Cabinet members of the date of the payout. All cries are about the timing – how can they do that five months after succeeding the PPP? In fact it is six weeks because the increase takes effect from July 1, 2015. It meant therefore that six weeks after toppling the PPP government the APNU-AFC coalition gave itself an increase in salary. Let’s move to the explanation for the salary increase. Does the coalition have political advisors? Do they have people who put strategizing papers on the table? There are two explanations, among others, for the salary increase that the PPP will sing, sermonize and cry about until the General Elections of 2020. It will not be easy to stop the PPP’s success in selling that song. Any political neophyte can get political capital out of those two explanations. The first emanation was that quality people comprise the Cabinet and you have to pay these people good money. This is a lapse in judgement that will haunt the coalition until 2020. These quality people have to show their quality until the next General Elections. If they slow up, do not perform, falter consistently, demonstrate traits of incompetence then you have a relentless opposition that will ask if these quality people deserved the money they got from July 1, 2015. I am not sure the quality people at the moment are showing their quality. I can cite the voice of two persons who in a previous column I mentioned without identification that told me the APNU-AFC Government is far slower than the PPP regime. If I name these two persons all Guyanese would know that they are totally committed to the People’s National Congress. Both are doing high-level work for the Government. Journalism becomes more credible when you name names and places. A reader can always say that the writer stitch in that example to prove a point but it never happened. I cannot name these two committed persons whose loyalty to the new government cannot be questioned but I will provide the background circumstances. One told me that at the wake of the mother of Nigel Hughes. The other spoke to me while Aubrey Norton was next to me but I don’t know if Aubrey heard him. If you have quality then how come you are slower than the previous incompetent regime? I can cite at least ten cases where people that have been employed by the new government in important capacities have not been paid since they got the jobs in July. I can cite about six cases where letters of appointment made in August are yet to be officially approved thus the appointees cannot assume office up to the time of writing. I know of people appointed to Boards that haven’t met as yet and the Board members do not know when these Boards will meet. Many of these Board members have not received any official letters of accreditation. In one situation my anger was uncontrollable when I intervened. This qualified man told his wife and family that he got the placement. Yet this man was reduced to humiliation by running to the particular Ministry everyday for one month. At the time of writing there is no letter of appointment in his hand. If you think I am not telling the truth please ask Leonard Craig what this man went through. He is a friend of both of us. There is a similar situation at another Ministry. If only I could identify these people so the Guyanese people could understand how they are feeling. Is this what we expected when we welcomed the new government? I went to a funeral last Sunday far out of Georgetown. I cannot name the place because in so doing, the person could be identified. I met someone that I campaigned with during the May election battle. The guy told me he is yet to be paid by the Ministry he now works for. I ask in all sincerity where these quality people are who got their increase retroactive from July 1? The second emanation for the salary increase is that you have to pay good money if you are going to attract quality people to come and work with the government. I will look at the weakness of that point during an election campaign in another column.