In the more than 18 months since the APNU+AFC government took office it has stumbled from one faux pas to the next, each time baring a little more of its true, inner workings and quite often to the dismay of many in the public. One of the more recent revelations relate to fully-funded Government of Guyana scholarships that were secured by the Minister in the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson and Minister in the Ministry of Education, Nicolette Henry.
This only became public knowledge via a question posed in Parliament by Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira to Minister of State Joseph Harmon.
While this country urgently needs more and more of its people to take up tertiary education and remain here, certain norms must apply to government scholarships that are available to the public.
When they were invited to join President Granger’s government both Ministers Ferguson and Henry should have been aware that first and foremost they were there to serve the public. That notion of service to the public carries within it a higher realisation that other needs and ambitions have to be deferred.
The call to serve was made even easier as shortly after their appointments, President Granger caused the salaries of all classes of ministers to rise significantly even though none of them had been tested and could be deserving of this increase. Part of the rationale for the heady salary increases for the ministers of government was to reduce the lure of corruption.
Presumably this should also have dampened the enthusiasm of both ministers Ferguson and Henry to seek to engage in tertiary studies, which studies were not even in their ministerial area of interest; Minister Henry is pursuing public health and Minister Ferguson public policy management.
Not much was known about Ministers Ferguson and Henry in terms of their capacity to manage ministerial portfolios prior to being parachuted into government in 2015. As such they can only be judged by their performance.
Minister Ferguson has thus far had an unremarkable tenure. As it relates to Minister Henry there are several glaring cases of poor performance. The most obvious one being the organisation of the programme for the 50th independence anniversary at D’Urban Park. That much-criticised performance has led to the establishment of a special events body.
On the face of it, given what should be onerous portfolios, neither Minister Ferguson nor Minister Henry should have that much time on their hands to pursue tertiary studies. Does the APNU+AFC administration have a policy on its ministers pursuing higher education?
One would hope that at least, the two ministers sought permission from the Ministry of the Presidency and this was given. There should however be a policy as the country has been plagued by a longstanding problem of teachers shortchanging students while pursuing a range of classes at the University of Guyana. Despite its many pledges, the government has failed to produce its code of conduct to guide the behaviour of its senior officials. This would presumably address activities outside their ministerial portfolio including working on the side.
Aside from the unseemliness that ministers of the government are competing with the average Guyanese for a scholarship, there is another major problem. Presumably there would have been numerous applications for the scholarships accessed by the two ministers. These applications would then have had to be sifted through and evaluated by a panel. It would severely strain credibility to believe that a panel convened under the aegis of the Division of the Public Service which no longer has ministry status would receive applications from ministers of the government and not be intimidated by them.
The process to select would therefore be tainted from the outset. Scholarships are an important asset of the public service. It is hard to believe that the recent commission of inquiry into the public service would contemplate the possibility of ministers taking up these scholarships or create the conditions for such.
The Ministry of the Presidency should release as much information as possible, without breaching privacy rules, on how many people applied for the scholarships secured by the two ministers, the qualifications of the applicants and the programmes they were intent on pursuing.
