Depoliticisation

Hoyte contended that President Jagdeo did not address in his letter the issue of depoliticisation of the public service which the two leaders had come to an agreement on.

He asserted that Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, was the chief offender against the rule of public service neutrality.

He also stated that permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Hydar Ally, has no qualms about appearing regularly on the ruling People's Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) sponsored television programme `Getting it right.'

On another bone of contention, Hoyte said Jagdeo has chosen to ignore the fact that government was obligated to lay the state paper on the national policy on the distribution of land and house lots in the National Assembly by December 31, 2000.

He recalled that when this not done, he and President Jagdeo had agreed during the course of the dialogue to appoint a joint committee to deal with the very matters with which the state paper should have dealt with.

He charged that it was the recalcitrance on the part of Minister of Housing and Water, Shaik Baksh, which ensured the joint committee failed to agree on anything and its work was aborted.

The PNC/R leader recalled that President Jagdeo undertook to have the required state paper laid in the National Assembly by the end of February 2002, and expressed surprise at Jagdeo's assertion that he had proposed and Hoyte had accepted an extension of the time to March 2002.

He pointed out that the issue was now merely academic, however, since the March deadline has passed and the state paper has still not been tabled in the National Assembly.

Hoyte stated that the reasons given by President Jagdeo for not tabling the state paper could not be seriously entertained.

"They did not, and do not, constitute a let or hindrance to the convening of the National Assembly. In fact, these issues are still outstanding and yet the National Assembly has since convened for the purpose of the national budget," he said.

De Kinderen

On the electrification of the village of De Kinderen, Hoyte said the issue provided a lesson in "disingeniousness" and "cynicism".

He said the Depressed Communities Needs Commit-tee reported in May 2001 that De Kinderen had identified electricity as its first priority.

The sum of $15 million was allocated to have the work done.

There was no movement on the matter after some months had elapsed and Hoyte said the committee approached Prime Minister Sam Hinds on it.

He described Hinds' attitude as unhelpful and said the Prime Minister took the position that the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) could not do the work before the year 2002.

Hoyte said he raised the matter with President Jagdeo and subsequently Hinds directed GPL's management to undertake the work before the end of 2001 but the task was still not done.

Hoyte said President Jagdeo advised during the first meeting between the two leaders this year that Minister Baksh had reported that the electrification of De Kinderen could not proceed because he had to "regularize" the occupation of the village.

"You said that you would instruct the minister to do so within two weeks. But Minister Baksh was not to be denied. In a memorandum to you dated February 19, 2002, he referred to your instructions to him and advanced a number of reasons why they had not been carried out. He then undertook to have the work completed by Friday, February 22, 2002, after which, he said, he would have the necessary action taken to electrify the community. It is now two months after the promised date and action is yet to be taken to provide De Kinderen with a supply of electricity," Hoyte wrote.

He said it is difficult to accept that when the Prime Minister instructed GPL to electrify De Kinderen by December 31, 2001, he was unaware of the need to have the area regularised.

He said it is equally difficult to accept that Minister Baksh did not know of government's commitment to provide electricity to the community as a matter of urgent priority since May 2001.

State boards

Regarding the membership of state boards, commissions and committees, Hoyte said the question was not the PNC/R's membership of the boards or the number of representatives on them.

He stated that the principle involved is the right of Opposition parties to have such representation, whoever may comprise the parties.

He asserted that it was an issue which arose out of the St Lucia Statement of 1998 - signed between PPP/C and PNC/R representatives - and agreed to in two documents signed by Dr Luncheon and PNC/R Member of Parliament Lance Carberry.

"These agreements were reaffirmed by us in the course of the dialogue and, as I understood it, you instructed Dr Luncheon to implement them."

He said in the first place it was difficult to get Dr Luncheon to provide a complete list of state boards, commissions and committees. He added that the PNC/R has not received a verified list to date. The PNC/R eventually submitted a roll to Dr Luncheon totalling in excess of 100 entities. After comparison with partial lists sent by Dr Luncheon the final one totalled 134 entities. The PNC/R requested from Dr Luncheon a list of all the entities whose boards would expire by December 31, 2001, and the boards which would expire after that date but he never supplied the information, Hoyte said.

He stated that his party submitted 63 nominees for boards it was led to believe would expire before December 31, 2001, based on the partial lists submitted by Dr Luncheon. He further added that Carberry wrote asking Dr Luncheon to confirm that the 63 boards for which the nominations had been made were those whose terms would expire before December 31, 2001, but Dr Luncheon did not reply.

The PNC/R leader said of the 63 names submitted by his party Dr Luncheon advised that 51 had been appointed but no mention was made of the other twelve.

Furthermore, Hoyte said that several of the 51 persons appointed to the boards are yet to receive their letters of appointment and therefore could not attend board meetings.

Parliament committees

On the impasse between the political parties on the issue of the Parliamentary Management Committee, the Sectoral Committees, the Appointments Committee and the Constitution Reform Commission, Hoyte acknowledged that Jagdeo had suggested that the matter be discussed at the level of the two leaders but he pointed out that it was not the first time the President had made such a suggestion.

Hoyte stated that when he and President Jagdeo met with their representatives: Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Reepu Daman Persaud and Carberry, the points of differences were identified and the representatives were instructed to meet to resolve them.

Carberry submitted modified terms of reference to Minister Persaud by a letter dated November 29, 2001, but there has been no movement since, he said.

Hoyte said the PNC/R considers that the formalisation of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committees should be approached as a comprehensive package.

He said the PNC/R rejected the allegation that the party was in any way responsible for the non-constitution of any Committee or Commission.

To support his position, he quoted from a letter by Carberry to Minister Persaud which stated: "I am assured by the President's commitment that resources would be made available, including the device of a supplementary financial provision, to ensure that the Parliament Office will have the capabilities and capacity to effectively and efficiently service the seven new Parliamentary Standing Committees."

Hoyte noted that no financial provisions were discerned in the budget estimates for 2002 for the functioning of the committees and said this raised a serious question of credibility.

Promises

With respect to the Radio Monopoly and Non-Partisan Boards Committee, Hoyte said a report was completed and President Jagdeo had undertaken to send it to the Attorney General's chambers for the legislation to be drafted.

He said the President claimed that a copy of the Border and National Security Committee report has been forwarded to the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"These developments are commendable, though tardy. They are however still mere promises to be fulfilled. The CEC looks forward to the legislation and the edited report being laid in the National Assembly," he said.

The Opposition Leader declared that there was no reason why the non-partisan boards could not be established immediately since no legislation was needed.

He said there appears to be bad faith whenever the Prime Minister has responsibility with respect to any of the joint committees.

He cited as an example the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting (ACB) which stated in its interim report to the two leaders that the joint committee had unanimously agreed that the ACB should administer the approval of broadcast licences.

The Prime Minister has promulgated regulations which have omitted this function from the ambit of the ACB's activities, Hoyte argued.

The PNC/R leader also noted that the Ethnic Relations Commission should have been established by December 2000, and he had a great difficulty understanding how a government could responsibly claim that the process was frustrated for over one year by the inaction of a public functionary.