The manner in which the dialogue decisions are being implemented is not indicative of a government that wants to get things done, according to PNC/R leader, Desmond Hoyte.

As a result, he told a press conference at a Congress Place press conference yesterday, the PNC/R has adopted the position that unless the decisions already taken are implemented it is no use talking about the parliamentary committees and other such issues.

But despite the disappointing results so far, Hoyte still believes that the dialogue, the alternative to which, he says, is barricades, has been of some use "insofar as decisions have been taken about dealing with certain problems. Those decisions have to be implemented."

One of the decisions taken but not faithfully implemented was the depoliticising of the public service, he said, pointing to the frequent appearance of Hydar Ally, permanent secretary, Ministry of Education on "the PPP programme called Getting It Right".

He said that his party's position was that it was the Guyana Public Service Union that should be making noise about it. Contacted for a comment, GPSU General Secretary, Randolph Kirton, told Stabroek News that it had been frequently drawing the public's attention to this issue. He cited statements by the union on the appointment of Dr Nand Kishore Gopaul as head of the Public Service and Mitra Devi Ally as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security.

Among the litany of dialogue decisions not implemented, recited by Hoyte, was the still to be laid in parliament White Paper on Land Allocation and House Lot Distribution. He noted that a decision of the National Assembly that required it to be laid by December 31, 2000.

Other decisions were the implementation of the report by the joint committee on border and national security issues which Hoyte said was gathering dust in somebody's desk drawer and the implementation of the electrification of De Kenderen Village, West Coast Demerara, identified by the community as a priority need almost a year after the decision was taken.

He said that the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) had said it was awaiting instructions from the Prime Minister and had a shortage of funds, which Hoyte described as strange since $60 million was allocated for projects in the four communities that the committee identified for priority attention.

The recommendations by the joint committee on radio monopoly and non-partisan boards, he said, were yet to be passed to the law officers for legislation to be drafted. Also, Hoyte said, the joint committee on local government reform now could not guarantee completion of its work by the end of this month because of the unjustified and unprincipled wrangle over the appointment of Prof Andrew Reynolds to advise on the electoral system for the local government bodies.

He commented too on the constitution of the seven new parliamentary Standing Committees including the four sectoral committees to which the government is insisting that the ministers must be appointed. Hoyte said that if ministers were appointed to the sectoral committees, which will be responsible for the scrutiny of all areas of government administration "it will render the constitutionally enshrined principle of Collective Responsibility meaningless and fly in the face of transparency. The opposition finds this totally unacceptable."

He said too that the "opposition submitted draft proposals for the Distribution of Ministerial Responsibilities for the four Sector Committees since November 2001," and "to date there has not been any response."

The presence of the ministers on these committees is the one issue on which there is an impasse as there has been agreement on the terms of reference; the government having a majority (6:5) on all the new Standing Committees save the parliamentary management committee, the rotation of the chairmanship of the sectoral committees, and ministers not chairing the sectoral committees.

About the parliamentary management committee, Hoyte said that given the purpose for which it was being established, there should be parity of representation between the two sides of the National Assembly. "The PPP/C has rejected this." He also mentioned the non-implementation of the process for constituting the Ethnic Relations Commission established by the Constitution (Amendment)(No2) Act that was assented to on August 11, 2000. He said that a motion authorizing the Clerk of the National Assembly to write to the organisations identified to be represented on the commission to submit their nominees was approved since November 2000, but these letters were still to be sent off.

Stabroek News understands that the Parliament Office is in the process of writing to the 115 organisations that are to be involved in the nomination process.