The opposition will not submit nominees for membership on some state boards unless government assures that it will not be involved in their running, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday.
“We don’t want to rubberstamp any of those issues. Once there is a clear signal from the president that won’t be the case, then we might reconsider this position,” Jagdeo said when asked about the non-placement of persons from the opposition on state boards.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson last week bemoaned the fact that with five new boards for various agencies overseen by his ministry already commissioned, the opposition was yet to name a representative.
Patterson had said that President David Granger gave directions to the heads of all ministries that the opposition must have a say on the boards and as a result they are to leave a seat on all boards available for a person of the PPP/C’s choice.
Jagdeo said that he does not want to appoint anyone from his party to a board and their voices cannot be heard in decision making there.
“This fiasco that took place with GuySuCo is a fact that we made the right decision not to participate on these boards. When the union showed up the management told them it was the board [that made the decision to close the Wales estate], then the minister said this decision was made by the management and was part of their plan for 2015 …then we heard the president said the [Commission of Inquiry] is not gospel…I suspect the decision was made elsewhere and the board and management [had] to implement it,” he posited.
“I can give you other cases too, even the GRA [Guyana Revenue Authority]. I have heard about letters that were sent from the Office of the President for people installed in GRA. These people are exempt from reporting to the Commissioner-General and now don’t have to submit to the jurisdiction of the Commissioner-General or the Board. The media can dig a bit more and they will see,” he went on to state.
However, Jagdeo pointed out that the PPP/C will have a presence on boards dealing with human and social services. “We made it clear we will participate on some boards, the ones that are humanitarian and social—the Adoption Board, the Board of Guardians and things like that, deals with pensions and things like that—those are boards that are outside of the politics and we hope remain outside of the politics. On the others? No,” he said.
