sham separation from APNU cannot mislead Guyanese – Jagdeo

Ano-holds barred General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo, took leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan to task.

During a news conference on Thursday (May 4, 2023) at Freedom House, Robb Street, he said, “Ramjattan is a pathetic shadow of a leader….the AFC is more venal and corrupt that APNU.”

Jagdeo charged that Ramjattan’s farce “about not being part of the Coalition” continues to be exposed, given the fact that its active campaign for APNU ahead of LGE.

He said, “The perceived separation is a tactic – a public divorce, but privately sleeping together. It is transparent.”

The Cummingsburg Accord, which tied the APNU and the AFC together, expired at the end of 2022 and the latter has confirmed that, on paper, the two political groups are not tied to each other. In public comments, AFC Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan said, “We did a withdrawal as part of the [Cummingsburg] Accord…in June, we made a decision, it was not a talk, it was a decision at the [National] Conference in accordance with the Accord that on December 31 we are going to withdraw out of the Accord and independently do things, just like prior to the Accord being signed and we were two independent parties.” The leader of the PNCR and APNU, Aubrey Norton, was engaged by Ramjattan on December 28, 2022, where the split was confirmed.

Notably, the AFC Leader was unable to distinguish the so called ‘divorce’ since APNU and AFC remained tied as a collective in the National Assembly. Ramjattan in public comments said, “We will consult and

The approach of the PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition, detailed by its increasingly embattled leader, Aubrey Norton, is “no good” for Guyana, according to the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, during a news conference on Thursday (May 4, 2023) at Freedom House, Robb Street.

Referring to Norton’s position that there was “nothing wrong” about current Members of Parliament, and former APNU+AFC Coalition government officials benefiting from millions under a programme that was set up to support disadvantaged Guyanese, Jagdeo said, “Norton sees nothing wrong with creaming benefits for themselves in programmes intended to benefit ordinary Guyanese…their philosophy is no good for this country.”

An audit report into the operations of the Sustainable Livelihood Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) under the APNU+AFC government exposed damning findings of mismanagement and possible illegal use of taxpayers’ money. The audit found, among other things, that three AP-

NU+AFC Coalition Members of Parliament (MPs), Christopher Jones, Jermaine Figueira, and Vincent Henry, benefited from millions. The latter had charge of some $165M that was to be distributed to so called Co-op societies, but the audit found that this was not so. The audit report noted that several allocations that were done for the period 2018 to 2020 amounted to approximately $371M.

Norton was pressed on the fact that APNU+AFC MPs benefited from a programme that was intended to support disadvantaged persons. He said, “Any Guyanese has a right to benefit from financial assistance…. once no rules were broken that said as MPs they could not, I see no problem…the SLED programme, as I understand it, was to help people get into business, etc.

According to Jagdeo, Guyanese have seen this trend before and pointed to the Coalition’s first major act within its first six weeks in office, which was to give itself large salary increases.

In the September 25th edition of the Official Ga - zette, it was revealed that the former Prime Minister and all former Government Ministers received a salary increase, way above what was offered to public servants in the 2015 Budget. collaborate at the parliamentary level. We are a partnership that’s called APNU-AFC and we certainly would want to collaborate.” Last year, when asked about the AFC retaining its parliamentary seats, the Party Leader said, “Nothing will happen to our nine seats…nobody could knock us out once duly elected.”

Former prime minister Moses Nagamootoo, was at the top of the earning bracket, earning $20.6M, a massive increased compared to his predecessor, Samuel Hinds. Further, the former Coalition government’s Senior Ministers had their pay packets doubled from $6.9M to $10.5m. Junior Minister also benefited and were paid $8.3M.

According to Jagdeo, the Coalition’s approach to policy making has also centered on consumption. “After 28 years in office the result was that Guyana was one of the poorest countries in the world. And then in five years that they resumed office, they started the downward trend again – borrowing, spending on the capital side, spending less in each of the 5 years than the 2014 period, so no building for the future. Nothing about future. Consuming,” Jagdeo said.

Further, the APNU and AFC have been at loggerheads about the sharing of seats and picking of key appointments in their majority RDCs since 2020 when the APNU members of the Region Four failed to support an AFC candidate for the Vice-Chairman post of that region. The AFC lost to the APNU on almost all the issues on which they clashed.

The PPP General Secretary maintains that the two increasingly embattled groups remain tied to each other and the ‘paper’ separation will not mislead right-thinking Guyanese.

PPP/C gov’t working ‘actively’ to address teachers’ salary issues – PPP GS

The salary anomalies that exist in the teaching profession will be addressed by the PPP/C government, according to General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo.

Speaking on the issue during a news conference on Thursday (May 4, 2023), he said, “What we are thinking about is we want our teachers to be trained and there should be a salary gradation based on years of service and qualifications.”

According to him, the PPP/C government’s agenda is “heavy” and the concerns of teachers is “actively engaging the agenda of the government.”

Notably, Jagdeo also took at the APNU+AFC Coalition’s Coretta McDonald for trying to politicise the Guyana Teachers’

Union.

“…if you look at the welfare of teachers it has always been addressed by successive PPP/C governments…the teachers of this country have to understand that they will have a relationship with the government that is respectful and have a government that will respond to our concerns,” he declared.