IT is widely known by now that Attorney General Anil Nandlall, despite a crushingly busy schedule, always makes time on Saturdays to meet with the grassroots people to listen to their concerns, to assist wherever and whenever he can, to advise on courses to follow on problem-resolution, or to refer supplicants for help and/or advice to the relevant bodies.
His Saturday engagements are part of the administration’s strategy of taking government to the people, in keeping with the PPP/C’s manifesto promises.

During one engagement with the public at one such forum, the plight of two public servants who had been dismissed from jobs by newly appointed management constructs clearly appalled him because, as he informed  them, the managers had clearly misunderstood government’s staff-restructuring intent, which was to rid the public service of political appointees holding sinecure positions and drawing small fortunes of taxpayers’ money, with a multiplicity of benefits each month, as well as those engaged in corrupt practices and not the ordinary wage worker. He promised he wold ensure that they were re-employed.

But the lies being peddled that public servants are being dismissed because of their ethnicity is gaining traction, because of the plethora of persons with agendas inimical to national cohesion spouting their misrepresentation of facts and plain lies in print and electronic media, as well as the far-reaching, wide-ranging social media.

Dr. Tara Singh, renowned Guyanese humanitarian domiciled in the USA, wrote in the Kaieteur News of Nov 26, 2020, under the headline, “Fewer than 300 workers sent home,” in which he posits, inter alia, as follows:

“The hiring of political advisers, political operatives and contract workers, when a new government assumes office, is a normal and customary practice, as illustrated by the ‘transition’ between the outgoing President Donald Trump and the President-elect Joe Biden administrations. In Guyana, however, this transition, including the hiring of workers, has become an area of contention.”

The ensuing furore which has been precipitated by persons who seem intent on creating distrust in the government and rifts in the nation, has a political genesis. These entities, led by the GPSU, had contended during the PPP/C administration (pre-2015) that the system of appointments of political appointees, advisers, and contract workers also undermined the role of the Public Service Commission (PSC), whose responsibility is to hire, promote, examine work conditions of public servants and to discipline those who are errant. They also alleged that the hiring of contract and political-type employees had placed traditional public servants at a disadvantage. The latter have been getting lower salaries compared with contract and politically appointed workers for doing similar or even higher-level jobs.

Dr. Singh iterated that, conversely, once in government, the public service employment roll was bloated by the coalition administration with over 10,000 new employees (during 2015-2020). He was alluding to statements made by a top PPP/C government official on a Globespan programme.

According to Dr. Singh, a significant percentage of the new employees were (i) on contract and/or (ii) were party supporters/members. The GPSU and others kept quiet on this issue, as well as on the massive firing of thousands of sugar workers by the coalition.

According to a PPP/C government functionary, “The public service (under the PNCR) was embedded with many political appointees that were found in all the ministries and who were on contract and receiving high salaries, had few qualifications, if any, and not working, except doing open political work for the PNCR. Their services were terminated, but they were given their leave and benefits.”

According to the government official, these political appointees holding non-performing positions were let go to decrease the level of contract and/or political appointees, and to enhance workers’ productivity, their professionalism, as well as to make them responsive to the requirements of the government’s policies. He asserted that the PPP/C administration, as did the PNCR government before, albeit on a much lesser scale, terminated several of those contract and politically appointed workers. The terminations were not carried out ruthlessly as were done by the coalition government in 2015, but rather in a measured way to ease the level of disruption.

Dr. Singh informed that, contrary to some critics, a government source confirms that no one on the fixed, pensionable establishment has been terminated, and that terminated workers have been given their benefits. He opined, “To define those terminations as ‘ethnic cleansing’” is unfortunate and a reckless use of language.”

The new administration is taking steps to professionalise the public service to make it more functionally productive and responsive to the needs of the people.