…and eyepass
There’s a news item informing the nation that on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has been summoned to the newly-painted green State House to “discuss” the appointment of Chief Justice of Belize, Kenneth Benjamin as Chancellor of Guyana’s judiciary. The summons is reminiscent of the one that resulted in (Chief?) Justice James Patterson being appointed by President Granger as Chairman of GECOM (ag).
The meetings are necessary, of course, because the Constitution demands them to ensure that the Opposition Leader “agrees” with the appointments to these sensitive positions. There was a time when the President just had to “consult” with the Opposition Leader, but that had become a farce under Burnham, whose legacy Granger has vowed to uphold. Burnham recounted how he’d just call up Cheddi Jagan – designated the “Minority” Leader in a studied gesture to belittle him – and ask him how was the weather then hang up the phone. That was “consultation”!
So the requirement was changed from “consultation” to “agreement” – along with the reversion back to “Opposition Leader” – in the slew of constitutional changes enacted in the new millennium, intended to ensure critical State appointments had the widest possible legitimacy conferred by the leaders of the governing and Opposition parties. And it’s this principle that President Granger is once again violating – and “eyepassing” – the Constitution on, when he nominates people like Patterson and Benjamin.
Granger knows these persons are not “fit and proper” for the offices they’re being parachuted into and that the Opposition Leader is duty-bound to reject them. Take Patterson…he still hasn’t produced any evidence he was ever “Chief Justice” of Grenada as he claimed. How can you have a man who pads his résumé be in charge of ensuring the Government doesn’t pad the voters’ list??
And as for Benjamin, we at least KNOW he’s the Chief Justice of Belize. But that’s precisely the problem!! The Bar Association of that country for years has demanded he work to reduce the backlog of cases in front of him on the principle “Justice delayed is justice denied”. In 2016, Benjamin himself admitted the situation was “embarrassing” – but a year later has delivered only THREE additional rulings!!
With Guyana also having a big backlog problem, how can Granger expect Jagdeo to agree to Benjamin’s nomination? But that’s not the only problem. Did goat bite Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards after Granger himself appointed her as acting Chancellor? In what way did she fall down on the job in the year she’s been there?
Did the backlog she inherited, for instance, increase?
…on the Demerara Harbour Bridge
It seems the Government of Guyana, in general, and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, in particular, have discovered a “Bridge Fairy”. You know … like the tooth fairy who leaves money under your pillow when you lose a tooth, the Bridge Fairy will leave money for the new Demerara Harbour Bridge, which Minister Patterson still insists will kick off in 2018.
The fly in the ointment is no monies were allocated for the new bridge in the 2018 Budget just passed. Your Eyewitness knows there’s talk about a BOOT Public-Private Partnership…but shouldn’t there be monies allocated for the “Public” component? Typically, this would cover roads and approaches – like monies to pay off Ming for his Versailles land.
Now you may say, Dear Reader, the Government can always ask for monies in a Supplementary Budget! But this is where you’d be going along with an illegality. Supplementaries are supposed to cover “unforeseen emergencies”.
Not to keep a promise made a year ago!
…on border controversy
Well, your Eyewitness was going to hold his breath yesterday for the UN Secretary General to send the Venezuelan border controversy to the World Court after Trotman claimed news of the Exxon Bonus would provoke Venezuela. He gave up.
The UN system does keep its promises, doesn’t it?
