Some new permanent secretaries to be named -- Jagdeo
President Bharrat Jagdeo says that he hopes to name some new permanent secretaries soon. According to a Guyana Information Services (GIS) release, Jagdeo said on the programme "This Week With the President" which was aired on the Guyana Television's (GTV) Channel 11 over the weekend, that he hoped to name new permanent secretaries (PS's) shortly and that some of the existing ones might be "shifted around." He promised that these PS's, like the ministers under whom they served, would be held responsible for their duties. On a related note, the President was reported as indicating on the programme that a lot of work had been going on which would hopefully lead to more efficient government departments which would also be much more friendly in their dealings with the public. He said that extensive efforts were being made at reforming policies and systems which were not functioning very well in the ministries. One example cited by the President, said the statement, was the administration of scholarships in relation to who gets these and according to what criteria. He said the government was now in the process of clarifying these and other issues. The release said that the President also noted that when he assumed office, he had had a number of ideas but had avoided announcing these until after discussions with various interest groups. One such discussion had been held with the private sector which, President Jagdeo said, had been one attempt at helping to stimulate private capital flows. The hope, he went on, was that when this happened a number of jobs would be created and the economy would resume the growth path that it had had in the past. The statement said that on the international front he foresaw some challenges for Guyana, but that he predicted that if we were united as a people, the future would be very good. He was reported as identifying the rapid move to end the negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas, as one of the challenges which would affect trade regimes as we currently know them. He also referred, said GIS, to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, noting that these "posed serious threats to Guyana's preferential markets and those sectors that export into those markets including rice, sugar and rum." On the local front, the President observed that Government was trying to deal with the wages issue, an apparent reference to the significant increase which had been awarded to public servants recently. President Jagdeo also used the forum to issue an appeal for national unity. After noting that the political situation in Guyana appeared to have stabilized, he went on to call for the media to contribute by writing stories that focused more on national unity than stories and reports of a "dividing nature." Turning his attention to the health and education sectors, GIS said that the President expressed the desire to see more efficiency in "the use of expenditure." He also said that the initiative of taking the entire cabinet to the people was very useful and was going to be a continuous process with Linden as the next location. On the issue of corruption, the President was reported as saying that ordinary Guyanese could help Government in its efforts to stamp this out by reporting any wrongdoing they saw. " I want to make it clear that anyone, no matter who you are, we find engaged in corrupt practices, will feel the full force of the rod and I am asking the people of our country to help me in this task," the Guyanese Head of State declared. In closing, he promised that the fight against corruption would be the hallmark of his Government.
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