…of the boys
Your Eyewitness is worried about the implications of all those military types being parachuted into top policymaking positions in this Administration – headed by an ex-Brigadier. The PPP sounded an early warning in the elections campaign when several military big wigs suddenly shed their epaulets and hopped onto the political platforms of APNU/AFC. “A militarised government” was what they worried about.
After the elections the warnings were intensified when the floodgates opened even wider for the “army boys” in all kinds of official positions. President Granger brushed off their criticisms. Aren’t Army veterans not Guyanese? Don’t they have skills that can be utilised? And more to the point, didn’t the PPP also employ some of veterans?
Well, while Prezzie’s points are well taken, your Eyewitness humbly suggests he missed the point of the concerns expressed. While the PPP did hire a few veterans, Prezzie doesn’t have to be a statistician to appreciate that “the quantitative can alter the qualitative”. You start out with a green solution but you keep on adding red dye to it…what happens after a while? Go to the head of the class, dear reader…that’s right!! The green solution becomes red.
And that’s what lots of folks fear. Sure ex-military people are Guyanese. But they’re Guyanese of a special type – they’ve each spent more than 20 years of indoctrination into a “military way of thinking. So when we hear they can “manage” organisations”…they’ll manage them the way they were trained by the MILITARY to do so. And now the majority of the President’s inner core of advisors are all ex-military types, one begins to appreciate the PPP’s worry about what kind of democracy we may have when all these fellas were used to only hearing “Yes Sir!!!” when they gave ORDERS.
Or worry about of advice they’ll give to distribute the scarce resources of the State. Look at this scenario. All sorts of people have worked for the State and drawn their salaries and after retirement, collect their old age pensions like the rest of the country when that time arrived. This is what public servants get. This is what nurses get. This is what firemen get. But if the Commission of Inquiry the President just commissioned has its way…it won’t be what ex-soldiers, ex-national service and ex-Peoples Militia will get.
The CoI will be recommending “legislation to provide for the welfare of veterans and their dept’s” and 20 other line items – including counselling for PTSD! Now in some countries, military types gets special benefits because of their “battle experience”.
But in Guyana, haven’t Policemen faced more battles?
…of procurement
Even some of those who saw through the venality in the ongoing “Pharma-ware-housegate” misunderstood the difference between “sole sourcing” and the “pre-qualification” procedure previously used to bid for the bulk of our pharmaceutical supplies and other medical essentials. The latter was recommended by the World Health Organisation and World Bank (WHO/WB). No government in the world can place individual orders on a piecemeal, day to day basis. There’s a need for consolidation, reliability of supply and quality that must be considered. So companies that can handle the supply so chain requirements WHICH INCLUDE APPROPRIATE WAREHOUSING, are “pre-qualified.
It’s absolutely not “sole sourcing” where you just give a particular company the order. Cause even after pre-selection of the vendor, the MoH compares the prices of the pharmaceuticals against those of the INTERNATIONALLY vetted AND AUTOMATICALLY qualified suppliers such as PAHO, IPA etc. Guyanese are now learning why the pre-qualification criteria insisted on including “warehousing”.
Now that the APNU /AFC Government threw it out – their Minister felt he had to “facilitate” a ware “house”!!
…of broadcasting
The Prime Minister says he reposes confidence in the Chairman of Guyana National Broadcasting Agency’s Board but the latter has “problems”.
No. It has Tony Vieira!!
