PM ‘not nice’ this time

FOR over one month, the new UNC government has made numerous allegations of unduly lavish expenditures, misplaced priorities and self-serving policies by the previous PNM government – to which, of course, the PNM MPs would respond. So, while PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her cabinet spends much time handling the Venezuelan “threat,” there are several local issues needing urgent rectification.

On the resistance to expected board resignations, the PM angrily declared: “This is the most shameless type of behaviour I’ve ever seen exhibited during a change of government. It is overt, it is bold-faced and trying to eat-ah-food down to the wire.” She is “not nice” this time. PNM Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi quickly expressed concerns over the UNC action: PNM MP Keith Scotland called it “bullying.” Why all this hullabaloo?

The enduring fact is that the PNM did it in 2015 – removing UNC appointees. Nothing really wrong. This has been the political tradition. It is time, however, to bring some documented political clarity and certainty to such appointments. Look, if a PM or minister appointed you to a state board, that was a political appointment – temporary, subject to be removed at any time and presumed to serve the interests and policies of the government which appointed you. That’s why you were selected.

The same thing applies when a new government comes into office. Nothing personal. Do we really need a law for this? Elected in a fair and free election, a government must be allowed proper space to execute its constitutional mandate.

It will be in the public interest of everybody now if Persad-Bissessar and her cabinet develop a written protocol and signed by their board appointees. This, in addition to the Finance Ministry’ State Enterprise Performance Monitoring Manual.

While it is commendable public service, political appointments are inherently temporary and under the discretion of the PM and his or her government. It is highly illogical to say there is “no law” to remove such political appointments. There is also no law for such appointees to remain in office.

Further, it is not a matter of whether the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) or Companies Act has some jurisdiction over the particular state board. It is the right of a government to select its directors, even if it has to work through shareholders. In fact, the new UNC government should have first prepared its own list of appointees, even retaining whom it considered competent, and then request removals.

This is different from appointments made under the Public Service Commission or Teaching Service Commission or even the Judicial and Legal Service Commission. Incidentally, the flourish of hiring contract officers in the public service and the liberal delegation of authority have weakened the “independent” status of some service commissions.

The scandalous multi-years’ delay by state boards and municipal corporations in submitting legally required audited financial reports remains a matter for urgent government attention. This has been happening right under governments’ noses. Two weeks ago, the PM called upon these tax-supported bodies to not only correct these delays but threatened them with cash-flow stoppages. She is “not nice” this time.

She gave them an “amnesty.” But look, the PM needs to toughen up and insert more stringent conditionalities for her new board appointments. Governments’ grand-charging must stop.

Noting this reckless, bold-faced wastage of taxpayers’ money, this column in February 2024 alerted the PNM government that the National Carnival Commission (NCC) since its formation in 1991 (Act No.9 of 1991) owes ten audited financial reports. The headline was “NCC finances in ole mas.” But who cared? Not finance minister nor minister of culture. Instead they just poured more millions into the NCC, writing of debts as they did with Cepep, Nedco, etc.

Look, the country’s financial accounting system is breaking down. And the UNC government’s mid-year review must convince the electorate that it means business now. It looks like Section 119 of the Constitution is suffering from lack of work – the Public Accounts Committee, the Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee which, like the Auditor General, can only consider when proper financial reports are submitted.

The troubling reports on June 5 by ministers Saddam Hosein and Barry Padarath regarding the million-dollar contracts suspiciously signed and awarded a few days before the April 28 election under the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government need to go further one way or another beyond mere announcements. Persad-Bissessar must really show she is not “biting nice” this time.