Below is the text of a response by Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, on behalf of His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo to a letter by the Leader of the Opposition and PNC/R, Mr. Robert Corbin, on the present status of the constructive engagement process.
November 14, 2003
Mr Robert Corbin, MP
Leader
People's National Congress Reform
Congress Place,
Sophia.
Georgetown
Dear Mr Corbin,
Reference is made to President Jagdeo's letter to you dated 11th November 2003 in which he indicated that, on his behalf, I would be communicating to you the views of the members of the Administration, involved directly in the Constructive Engagement between the Government and Opposition, to the sentiments outlined in your correspondence to him of 10th November 2003.
In general, my colleagues remain unconvinced and actually dispute that, as you have asserted, any objective assessment would reveal that substantial progress has not been made since the Communiqué was signed on May 6th, 2003.
Uniformly, they have expressed surprise at your assertion in light of the fact that the Press Statement issued subsequent to the last meeting between President Jagdeo and yourself on September 15th, 2003 as well as the well-publicized PNCR Report to the Monitoring Mechanism, both declared otherwise.
My colleagues have noted your contentions about public confidence in the process of Constructive Engagement and share with you the view that Public Confidence must always be cultivated in the Constructive Engagement process.
With regards to the Monitoring Mechanism, you may recall that your High Representative contributed to the forced postponement of the very first meeting by suddenly abandoning an agreed upon position dealing with alternating production and submission of the Report by our teams of high representatives. You may also recall that your High Representative contributed to the forced postponement of the second meeting by again abandoning an agreement against meeting the Monitoring Group in the context of the failure of the high representatives to agree on the text of the Press Statement.
Your High Representative compounded his error by his inexplicably unilateral submission of a PNCR report to UNDP abandoning the much-publicised agreement on joint submission as well as his excuse for his first demarche. Fortunately the Reports, as you may recall, were both well received by the Monitoring Group. The Media also reported favourably on that event.
Our High Representatives are committed to the process of implementing the Monitoring Mechanism and are willing to consider any suggestion on improving it, particularly in terms of public reception.
At the time of writing this response, Minister Teixeira has advised me, and no doubt you are also aware, that the appointive Committee of Parliament, which she chairs, has concluded its selection of the two (2) Parliamentary nominees to sit on the Public Service Commission. This occurred at the 13th meeting of the Committee.
You, no doubt, must have been party to the PNCR's opposition in 2002, to the PPP/C Administration's expressed intention to appoint the Constitutional Service Commissions. The PNCR, then, insisted on the PPP/C Administration observing the relevant constitutional provisions. The PNCR has publicly blamed the PPP/C Administration for the delay when in fact the PNCR has fought for the observance of constitutional provisions despite the much visible and identified consequences of the delay.
Nonetheless that hurdle has finally been overcome. However, I am advised that among the responses you undertook to provide to President Jagdeo, one materially affects the appointment of the non-Parliamentary nominated members of the Service Commissions. That response is outstanding since September 15th and has contributed to the delay in the commencement of our meaningful consultation on the appointment to the Service Commissions.
It is difficult, then, for our High Representatives to accept that you, personally, are unaware of the PNCR formidable contributions to the delay in the appointment of the Police Commissioner.
With regard to your proposals for the appointment of a new acting Commissioner of Police including the sudden support for legislation that allow for payment of benefits retroactively, our view is that the need for such a course is not as great as before since the major hurdle to reconstitution of the Service Commissions has been removed.
With regards to the discussions on the Procurement Legislation, Dr Luncheon has advised that, after fruitful exchanges, time out was given on Monday night so as to solicit legal opinions on many of what appears to be contradictions and ambiguities in the Legislation. An arrangement for the bilateral exchange to continue on 12th Nov. during the regular Wednesday morning Georgetown Club meeting of the High Representatives was aborted as President Jagdeo's departure created a conflict with that schedule.
With regards to the Public Procurement Legislation and the Public Procurement Commission, It may bear repeating in this same correspondence that Dr Luncheon's assessment of the meeting varies considerably from yours and even with any reasonable assessment of Mr James Mc Allister's note marked "D" and attached to your correspondence to President Jagdeo.
It bears repeating again to state that it was understood at the last bilateral meeting that a number of legal issues had to be addressed and the next meeting was postponed to Wednesday 12th November, 2003.
The PPP/C high representatives are concerned that you apparently have not been fully advised about the Oct. 29th understandings that the high representatives reached in trying to resolve the impasse surrounding the appointment of the Public Procurement Commission. It was proposed at that time that, in addition to continued efforts at the level of the PAC, resort should be made to the leaders at their upcoming meeting.
With regards to Equitable Access to state media, the PPP/C High Representatives have informed me that arising from prolonged discussions at their meetings; Mr. Bernard undertook to collate all the points made with a view that was shared, to extend the ambit of Equitable Access beyond that which was identified in the Bipartisan Committee's report to the leaders. That collation was intended for the attention of the leaders.
With regards to the Parliamentary Facilities, I have been asked to inform you that funding has been provided, for the rest of the year, to complete rehabilitation work to the roof and ceiling.
You must be aware that the PUC has finally vacated the Public buildings and since then the planned Needs Analysis has been started. These events have all been documented in the minutes of the meetings of the PMC.
With regards to the State media boards, Dr. Luncheon had disclosed that the PNCR high representatives were fully briefed about the planned actions of the Administration at their last meeting. Dr. Luncheon has indicated that the PNCR representatives had acknowledged their awareness of an understanding, since the time of the dialogue in 1998, that supported the Administration's act not to appoint PNCR nominees to Boards of entities that were being privatised, but had pleaded that exceptional circumstances existed at the GTV and the GBC that warranted a departure from that convention.
I am also advised that during the discussions with President Jagdeo on appointments to Boards, you had agreed to that convention as one of those restricting PNCR appointments to the Boards of Directors of such entities.
Dr. Luncheon wishes to remind you that the Sept 15 agreement called for those consultations with the bodies identified in the Joint agreement for appointment to the Media Boards to be concluded by the end of Oct. 2003 at which time the Boards would have been appointed. I wish to point out that the Board of GNNL was appointed in accordance with the agreed upon formula.
These points have been made, not to establish that the course of the Constructive Engagement has been without delays and other problems but to establish that your contentions are not based on evidence publicly available including the very important opinion of the Monitoring Group established by agreement in our May 6th Communiqué.
Samuel Hinds
Prime Minister