Hapless…

…and hopeless
If the escapees from Prison Break II at Lusignan weren’t so dangerous, it would make a very good comedy routine. How do you separate 90 prisoners from the 1000 who had to be evacuated from Camp St Prison Break I and brought them to Lusignan because they were the “most dangerous”, and then NOT keep them under strict surveillance? And this isn’t a matter of hindsight being 20/20.
We know reading has declined among the general population, much less underpaid prison wardens. But don’t they and the rest of the prison hierarchy look at movies?? Especially ones on prisons? What’s the most common leitmotif of prison movies?? Jeez! Escape, of course!! Whether it’s the “Great Escape” from that German POW Camp in WWII or the “Escape from Alcatraz” (in so many versions) you learn that breaking out of the prison walls is foremost on the minds of the convicts who’re serving extended sentences.
So, no!! This Eyewitness isn’t buying the story that these 13 hardened convicts somehow just HAPPENED to slip under the fence from a tunnel they just happened to excavate during heavy rainfall. First of all, even in dry weather you dig a five-foot hole on the Coast and you hit water! And if it’s raining the way it was, that hole would be full of water. Then what did they do with the dirt excavated? Five feet down, five feet across, and five feet up on the other side of the fence is 15 feet.
Multiply by a minimum of 2-sq feet to allow crawling out, we’re talking about 30 cubic feet of first. That’s a hell of a lot of dirt to escape notice by the guards!! That tunnel was dug by fellas in broad daylight – and during the rain were allowed to cover their entrance with zinc sheets. Collusion of the guards had to’ve been rampant. The seizure of 40 cell-phones the morning after just confirms this systematic collusion. How’d these prisoners charge their phones??
While your Eyewitness expects the obligatory COIs (plural since we had two jailbreaks…and counting!), the Government will be assisted (he knows) by the “trenchant” analyses by the Diaspora Academics who’d descended on Guyana for the coronation…oops!…investiture – -of UG’s Vice Chancellor, and ran into the jailbreak. Your Eyewitness was reliably informed the academics huddled in their rooms at the Ramada Princess for the duration! But empirical evidence has never daunted academics from pontificating, has it??
But no matter how they slice it, dice it or even puree it – no one can get away from the fact that for a government that was elected on a “security” platform – they are just lost at sea!!

…and unaccountable
One feature of this Government has been the disjuncture between authority and responsibility. There’s at least one governmental scandal a week — and yet, no one’s been fired to date!! It’s incredible. Prezzie has headed a very large organisation before – -the GDF – and he knows the buck always has to stop SOMEWHERE.
And that “somewhere” comes with responsibility – for the good AND the bad. If appointees are allowed to get away with murder, then he shouldn’t be surprised to have the murder rate skyrocket. But what most folks forget is the present Government is not only different from the army – it’s different from the usual Government. It’s a “COALITION government!
Here Prezzie is constrained by agreements – such as the Cummingsburg Accord. Even though he can – and has – futzed around with the small print (such as not allowing the PM to chair Cabinet!), he just can’t go around firing with impunity.
His Government’s now like a University. Ministers have tenure!!

…on time
It’s not every day a Minister of Government has to publicly ‘buse out’ functionaries. But Minister of Finance Winston Jordan was obviously pushed beyond his breaking point when lower level staff straggled in long after he was supposed to make his presentation.
Just can’t get no respect!!