By Navendra Seoraj

PUBLIC Service Minister Sonia Parag has
maintained that former Finance Minister Winston Jordan has rejected allowances for health workers.
Parag’s assertion was a rebuttal to former Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, who, in a letter, said: “The payment of a COVID Risk Allowance (CRA) was my idea. Yes, you heard correctly; it was my idea.”

Minister Parag had argued that it was Jordan who “flatly, refused and rejected” requests by the then Department of Public Service for increased allowances for healthcare workers, when the Ministry of Finance was sent proposals prior to the change of Government in August.
“I thank the former Minister of Finance, Mr. Winston Jordan for establishing a platform to clarify issues for the public regarding the payment of risk allowances to nurses.
“I maintain that it was Mr. Jordan who rejected an approval on the 3rd of June, made by the authorised personnel upon the Ministry of Health’s submission as to who fell in the category of a frontline worker,” said Minister Parag in a letter.

The approval for such a list fell within the remit of the Department of Public Service (as it then was), and the reality is that there were no increases in risk allowance and other allowances for healthcare workers for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

“I offered the Ministry of Finance’s help to prevent a crisis from developing, including the payment of a risk allowance to frontline workers. Yes, I am able to include that quotation, because I still have all of the WhatsApp communication,” Jordan claimed in a letter on Saturday.

The inability of the former APNU+AFC Government to provide a proper ‘care package’ for health workers was due mainly to the ‘feet-dragging’ by the then Public Health Ministry.
In response to Minister Parag’s comment about the allowances, Jordan had said the Ministry of Finance was ready to provide assistance in these areas, but former Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence never acted on his offer.
The former minister said he contacted Lawrence via WhatsApp on April 5, 2020, outlining the issues raised, and urged that these matters be addressed quickly.

PROTESTS
For some two weeks now, public healthcare workers, nurses in particular, have been staging strikes at facilities across the country, including the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC); the West Demerara Regional Hospital in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); the Fort Wellington Hospital in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); and the Linden Hospital Complex in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice). The nurses are calling for better pay and risk allowances.

“I, therefore, maintain my earlier positions that the Guyana Public Service Union did not protest when healthcare workers’ lives were in danger then, but seeks to do so now, especially when the current Government has, without any request or grievances being voiced, provided for frontline workers in the 2020 emergency budget,” said Minister Parag.
Minister Parag has since pointed out that it was with the change of government that the new administration, without being approached, allocated $150 million to the frontline workers.
Parag, in a recent report, said that she believes the healthcare workers are being politically instigated, given that no action was taken in the past, notwithstanding the Union for the healthcare workers, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), having had their requests denied.

“There was no protest action. That is what surprises me so today, because at that time when that was flatly refused, no action was taken whatsoever; no threats were made either. I find it strange that protest action is being brought now by the nurses,” Parag pointed out.

Parag reminded that it has been only just two months since the new administration has taken over Government, and in that time, measures have been taken to make circumstances better for the healthcare workers across the country, even as the Government tries to find a way to provide for all Guyanese.