When 35-yr-old sugar worker Sampersaud Taranauth was kidnapped and murdered in the backlands of Buxton on May 21, 2005, his young wife Kamini was left to single-handedly bring up their three daughters, ages ranging between six months to five years.
It has been an uphill task for Kamini, but she has managed by doing domestic chores to augment the public assistance she has been receiving for her daughters from the government.
However, since June of this year the public assistance was stopped, leaving Kamini in dire straits, especially as she had to outfit her children for the new school year, including the eldest who was just starting high school.
She appealed to Human Services Minister, Priya Manickchand, who said that, while she would not interfere with the work of the board of the public assistance department, she would help Kamini in other areas, one of which was the payment of an overdue water bill.  She invited Kamini to visit her Ministry and left instructions with her staff to facilitate the assistance that she had promised the widowed mother.
Kamini, who said that she has not had a new piece of apparel since her husband died, but only wears the clothes given to her by her sister-in-law, was roundly abused, lengthily and in very loud tones, by a staff member (name provided) of the Ministry because she was wearing a fairly decent top that morning (coupled with an old pair of jeans). She was told in no uncertain terms that if she could wear such a top then she was not in genuine need and was warned not to return to the Ministry for help.
President Jagdeo has said that “these tin gods” would be dealt with condignly for their superior and arrogant attitude and the condescending and rude manner in which they treat members of the public.
The government has instituted mechanisms to help the poor and vulnerable, but the systems of delivery fall very short at the human support level, all over the country in every sector of the public service.
Some nurses ignore patients who need bed pans, or help in any way.  Untrained members of the public have to be doing the work that nurses are being paid out of the public purse to do. Some doctors treat patients with disdain, especially those whose anxious relatives ask (very relevant and pertinent) questions. The government expends billions of dollars in the health sector, but when it comes to health care provided by health workers, the lack of sensitivity and humanity, much less professionalism is so overwhelming that sometimes neglect by health care providers has been blamed for seemingly unnecessary and avoidable deaths.
Guyana’s Public Service, which was modelled along the lines of the impeccable British Public Service and once boasted the highest standards imaginable, has degenerated to such an extent that Public Servants are generally distrusted and despised as persons who are lackadaisical and only deliver service to the public when they are rewarded in cash or kind.
Their unions do not hold them accountable for wrong doings, even large-scale theft from the institutions they serve, which has been documented, year after year, as a roll over from the previous administration, by the Auditor-General’s Report, until they are written off; but yet the lack of a job ethic prevails ad infinitum, because Public Servants are protected against sanctions for wrong doing through various systems and mechanisms, largely union-driven.
When members of the public like Kamini Parbat Taranath are debased and humiliated, and their pride and dignity trampled upon by the inhumane insensitivity of Public Servants, then it behooves the heads of organisations and ministries to take punitive measures, because not everyone has access to complain to senior officials, and the “tin-gods” are thus allowed to reign supreme, frequently derailing the mechanisms established by the government to help the poor and vulnerable.
There are horror stories circulating whereby officials re-route help meant for those really in need to friends and members of their families, or to someone who provides a “raise.”
The malaise became entrenched in the Public Service when any party card holder was given a job for which they were not qualified, until the standards in the system retrogressed and became ingrained into the level it generally is today.
As the President said, those whom are not satisfied with either remuneration or working conditions and hold their positions ransom by making the public suffer should leave the job and make way for someone who would really value having a job.
When the PNC administration had beggared this nation and public servants were living at poverty-stricken levels, especially when Hoyte froze Public Servants’ wages at $2,000 per month to facilitate his so-called Economic Recovery Programme, with the compliance of the Trades Union Council, it was Dr. Cheddi Jagan who, in 1992, told the IMF in no uncertain terms that he was going to allow bargaining for wages and conditions to be re-instituted for Public Servants.
Today, Public Servants own their own homes, with the most modern of conveniences. They dress in the latest fashions and can afford to attend high-priced concerts. Their lifestyle is fast climbing to the level of the middle-income bracket, but their mentality still remains in the PNC-era, where the rewards of the job, and not the job itself, are paramount. The loser is the nation.
President Jagdeo said that there is need for a change in attitude to propel behavioural changes in society, but who will bell the cat or challenge the unions?