Administrative deficit

There has been no election prior to this one when there has been so much talk of constitutional reform, and in the case of some of the parties, specifically of shared governance. But if it is that Guyana lacks good governance in a strictly constitutional sense, it must also be said that it lacks good government in an administrative sense. In fact, it is possible to conceive of an ideal constitutional framework for our situation and still have poor administration.

Among other things, this country has been plagued by poor decision-making at the highest level for more decades than the average person cares to remember. Those who go into office, however, are for the most part party stalwarts, who are selected not for their competence, but because of their ties to the party and their loyalty. Never mind that every president since the time of Cheddi Jagan has promised no more square pegs in round holes; they continue to be found in their numbers, not just at ministerial level, but lower down the order as well.

However, if irrational decisions are taken by those in office, or no decision is taken when it should be, then no matter how capable those lower down the line may happen to be in terms of implementation, the result will not redound to the good of the nation. There are any number of these examples which come to mind, but the Skeldon factory in the case of the PPP/C government and the handling of oil issues in the case of the present one are two of the more notable instances.

Even although there are some ministers who are not without ability in a general sense or in a particular area, our heads of state have thought nothing of appointing them to undertake sensitive negotiations in fields where they have no background, and where it has not been required they have the assistance and advice of those with the requisite expertise. In this respect, Mr Samuel Hinds in a previous administration and Mr Raphael Trotman in this one present themselves as examples. Mr Bharrat Jagdeo, of course, has a number of dubious policies and actions to his credit, while Mr David Granger’s particular penchant has been for elaborate staged events, in addition to which he has evinced an apparent inability to take decisions when he should, and interpret the provisions of the law in a conventional way.

And if the electorate thinks that the situation is likely to change after March 2, they should think again. The two large parties, one or other of which is expected to take the presidency and therefore form the government, are spending what they regard as anticipated profits from oil in their minds. As yet APNU+AFC have not issued their manifesto, although at the coalition’s campaign launch President Granger promised “the ‘green state’, the ‘digital state’, the ‘petroleum state’ and an education nation.”

Whether any of that had meaning to the public is doubtful; however, where the last item is concerned, voters will have noted that for much of the current term the wholly unsuitable Ms Nicolette Henry has been the Minister of Education, and there have been no major improvements in the institution. What confidence therefore does the President think the public will repose in his undertakings?

On a different occasion he promised free education from nursery to university, which despite the fact it was one of the policies which sent education into precipitous decline when Forbes Burnham introduced it, he now thinks the country will be able to afford. Whether or not that is so, it will hardly rescue the system in and of itself. For the past nearly five years no policies have been outlined in a comprehensive sense, and as already mentioned, the President put no one at the apex of the sector who was capable of crafting them after he removed Dr Roopnaraine, whose impact was minimal.

The PPP/C too had only a very limited effect on education, and at the launch of the outline of its manifesto towards the end of last year it made mention of it in a different context. Presidential candidate Mr Irfaan Ali said that 50,000 jobs could be created over five years, and that these would be higher-end jobs, particularly geared towards those with higher education, and vocational skills. He conceded that this would require “pushing boundaries and pushing the envelope and it requires us training our human capacity and changing the system, the education output, to meet the economic requirement of our country.” With no details supplied, this was effectively meaningless.

Exactly what he was proposing to do in relation to the current numbers of unemployed youngsters, not a small number of whom are not only unemployed but unemployable on account of a lack of education and/or vocational skills, he did not venture to say. And in any case, the electorate will ask who will fill these 50,000 vacancies? Foreigners? Again, it does not bespeak clear thinking on the part of those who would govern us.

It might be added that the PPP/C’s speciality hospital has reared its benighted head again, and this in a context where neither party has addressed the serious shortcomings in the primary health sector. The performance of the present government has been particularly deficient in this area, with Dr George Norton displaying unbelievably poor judgement for a senior minister at a very early stage. Specialities are built on sound primary health care structures; they don’t exist in isolation. What people want in the first instance is good basic health care, Can no politician who seeks power see his way to devising policies which would answer to that need? Everyone except those who rule over us or seek to rule over us would prefer the oil money to be spent in this way first, rather than on a speciality hospital first.

If the deficiency levels in the decision-making and administration abilities of so many of our politicians are an issue, there is a second order problem in that there is a serious dearth of administrative skills across the country. It might be noted that this affects not just the public sector but also the private one, where there is a significant shortage of middle management personnel. For development purposes the nation simply does not have a critical mass in terms of skills. The reasons are well known, and relate to the state of the economy which affected wages and salaries, as well as the nature of our politics. Together they have resulted in the most severe brain-drain in the region. If that is to be reversed, it is not just the economy which will have to offer more promise with the advent of oil, but politicians who will have to change their ways too.

It might be noted that politics has contaminated the upper echelons of the public service as well, since those in government set a greater store by loyalty than they do by merit, and are allergic to criticism of any kind, since this might require them to modify a decision. In our context the minister is invariably always right, even where he is glaringly wrong.

That said, it is also true that even with the best of policies, many ministries and government agencies simply do not have the staff capable of implementing them with any efficiency. The PPP/C simply bypassed the problem at the higher reaches by granting consultancy contracts, but this did not address the fundamental issue. But then they particularly were mistrustful of the public service on political grounds, and what they really wanted was docile employees committed to Freedom House. President Granger took a different line, although it was easier for him since many public servants were perceived as more sympathetic to his party. He went for salary increases – although these turned out to be rather more modest than what had originally been promised – and training. One suspects it is unlikely to be sufficient in terms of a substantial administrative upgrade.

Perhaps the one novel aspect of the 1980 Constitution which has never come in for much criticism is the regional system, at least in principle, because its intention was the devolution of power from the centre and giving local communities some control over their own affairs. It hasn’t worked that well, not so much because it was wrong in conception, but because it suffers from the same problems as central government, writ large. The problems vary from one region to the next and one local council to the next, but in a general sense there is the usual mix of politics, lack of funding and an administrative deficit. If the Ministry of Education, for example, is struggling, what can one expect of the regional education authorities?

All of this is to ignore one other critical factor subverting administration here, and that is corruption, which has its impact throughout the governmental system. That is another story, however; suffice it to say here that neither of the main parties is likely to set forth detailed policies to address it, since the one has denied it was corrupt when in office, and the other is likely to tout Guyana’s improved rating on the Transparency International Index. As in the case of constitution reform, knowledgeable members of the public need to get involved to start a discussion on what kind of safeguards, both legal and institutional, are required to protect us from the canker of corruption in the new oil era. Mr Sherwood Lowe has already opened the debate in a letter to this newspaper as it relates to integrity legislation.