Sinecure…

…in Government
Folks in academia are always struggling to get “tenure” – that is, to be confirmed in their job from which it’ll be “hell no hell” to get them fired. It’s almost as good as becoming a Public Servant – but not quite. Public Servants get a “sinecure” the moment they’re confirmed – which, the dictionary informs us is “a position that requires little or no work but giving the holder status and financial benefits.
But making out even better than Public Servants are Ministers of Government. These worthies get “mega status” to go with their “mega salaries” – while, to be honest, Public Servants are “catching they tail”! Trying to motivate the Ministers to do their jobs, (we think) Prezzie gave them a massive 60% raise within a month of entering office. In the normal course of things – in private business, for instance – the boss would wait for a period, decide how the employee’s doing – and THEN give him a raise, or the boot! But then they’re not Government – where the guiding philosophy is: “it’s only money!”
All of this flashed into your humble Eyewitness’ mind when he kept reading of the scandal unfolding in “Warehouse-gate”. Imagine a sitting Minister was caught in at least a dozen “misstatements” – the fella is, after all, an HONOURABLE Minister – which exposed he’d engaged in gross negligence at best or gross malfeasance at worse. But the man hasn’t been given even a hint he should step down!!
Did a minister have the warehouse rental open to bidding, as required by law? No!! Was the warehouse certified to store Pharma – literally a matter of life and death? Yes…But…Oooops! by the Minister himself!!! Why seek new storage space? The competition was too expensive, says the Minister, but then signed a contract for THREE times what he’s been given by the former warehouse’s owners!! Who’d been giving free storage to the Government for eleven years, but decided to start charging when the same Minister decided to give them the boot!
Hand supposed to wash hand, nuh? But the Minister claimed this created an “emergency” to find a new warehouse – and paid out our money even though the warehouse wasn’t even a glint in anybody’s eyes!! Still a work in progress…but rental’s being paid! So your Eyewitness returns to the question of Ministerial responsibility. When does enough become “enough” for Prezzie??
The cock’s crowed way beyond the requisite three times for this Minister. Now Prezzie’s shown he’s loath to fire Ministers – but he stands in danger of sending a message to them that “anything goes”. And too much has already gone down without comment.
So maybe he should appoint a Commission of Inquiry into “Warehouse-gate”??

…for MPs
And here it is your Eyewitness thought that cometh the hour (of crisis) for the country’s economy, the peoples’ representatives would rally round the flag, put their shoulders to the wheel and come up with a rescue plan. But they’ve just taken their vacation – scheduled to extend way into October – a month longer than the school kids. And you can’t blame them, can you? After all in the 450 days since they took office in mid May 2015, the Government’s really pushed their MPs at a gruelling pace. They’ve had to show up for 42 days in those 450 days!!
Can you imagine that? If your Eyewitness didn’t know better he would’ve sworn slavery’d been reintroduced just as we celebrated Emancipation. Problem is, most folks don’t appreciate how hard it is to be a Parliamentarian – especially for the Government MPs who’re practically all Ministers.
And Prezzie only gave them a 50% salary raise which only gave them $12.5M for their 42 days of working. What a slave driver!!

…for contractors
There’d been nothing wrong with Carifesta Ave. But it was going to be recapped, lit up, given a median and widened. All to impress Caricom HOGs – for $180M.
No widening, the money’s gone but were the HOGs impressed?