President Bharrat Jagdeo will meet the parliamentary political parties including the leader of the opposition and the social partners grouping representing the labour movement and the bar association on a joint consultation tomorrow at Le Meridien Pegasus at 6:00 pm.
Tomorrow's joint consultation is a follow up to the initial consultations the grouping had individually with President Jagdeo, PNC/R leader, Desmond Hoyte and the other opposition parliamentary political parties over the past seven weeks.
According to the release issued by the three organisations - the Trades Union Congress, the Bar Association and the Private Sector - which describe themselves as the Social Partners, they reiterate what they said during their initial consultations that they "do not in any way speak on behalf of the rest of civil society" but that "they are interested social organisations mandated by their members to present and promote their particular interests in discussions with the President, the opposition leader and representatives of the political parties in Parliament."
The release said that the topics to be discussed include "the agreed position by all the parliamentary parties that implementing the recommendations of the Constitution Reform Commission; and crime and security.
To aid the discussion on the implementation of the CRC recommendations, the release said, the partners have made available to the invitees the "main outstanding tasks that when completed would achieve this objective in a timely manner."
In relation to the discussion on crime, the release said, the Social Partners expected that the recent upsurge of crime and the need to urgently establish a secure environment will also be examined," and that "a collective examination of this issue would result in a consensus on remedial actions.
"In this regard the Social Partners have noted the many approaches and recommendations by the government, the opposition parties in Parliament and citizens addressing this matter, including efforts aimed at obtaining the advice of retired professionals such as former chiefs of staff of the Guyana Defence Force and former commissioners of police in crafting appropriate responses."
Referring to their position paper on governance, the Social Partners said they hoped that their recommendations on "issues required for treatment in categories grouped as `Immediate', `Medium-term' and `Long-term' matters, though by no means exhaustive, would assist the discussions ... and hopefully provide a basis for consensus on a framework of responses to the fundamental problems facing the country."
They also suggested that a small secretariat of professionals should support the proposed mechanism on shared governance by monitoring the implementation of all agreed measures. The small secretariat should also prepare and distribute reports to be made public in a timely manner and, in particular, routinely made available to the leadership of the security forces as background information against which they could undertake their collective responsibility to maintain a secure and stable environment in which progress could take place.