…says Minister Parag should familiarise self with work before making statements
Former Minister of Public Service Tabitha Saraboo-Halley has debunked contentions by her successor that the scholarship programme of the government was skewed in favour of one ethnic group and chided the young minister for not familiarising herself properly with the work and programme of the ministry before making pronouncements.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday new Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag said that she was has found a lot of flaws in the awarding of scholarships. “The system we have for vetting scholarships, that system is heavily flawed. That is what I have personally observed, and that is something that I plan to review and plan to change,” Minister Parag said.
She claimed she also found the awarding of scholarships to be “skewed to one demographic and geographic in Guyana”. This is something which the Minister outlined has occurred over the last five years and needs to be corrected, as it is far from her Government’s vision for all Guyanese. “The PPP/C Government has always said that it’s going to be fair, it’s going to be transparent to Guyanese and that is what we plan to do.”
The Minister also touched on the fact that the establishment of timelines in the scholarship system, is another void in the system that needs to be fixed. “We have the Scholarship Department, which has absolutely no timeframe from the time an application is made, to the time of an award. So, I do plan to implement a timeframe therein as well.” To add to the list, timeframes for granting allowances and the filling of vacancies are also non-existent, according to the Minister. Minister Parag is also currently working on placements for students who have completed their studies, and are awaiting employment assignment to the relevant entities.
However, Saraboo-Halley in responding to the claims by Parag said it is not practical to have one fixed timeline for the award of scholarships as the timelines vary based on a number of factors, including: if the scholarship is to the University of GUYANA; if the scholarship is based on bilateral agreement and certain information from the donor country is vital for the process to move forward and the start date of the programme of study being considered which varies across universities
“Ms. Parag’s statement that scholarships have been “skewed to one demographic and geographic in Guyana” can only be seen for what it is, an intrinsic view of the PPP/C that the APNU+AFC would continue to do what they had done while in office. I can assure the minister that when she actually gets a chance to look at the data she would have no choice but to recognise that it is her statements and beliefs that are skewed and not the management of the scholarships department over the last five years.”
The former minister asserted that the scholarships awarded are consistent with applications received. “If candidates from a particular ethnic group applies for scholarships more than others then the scholarships awarded will be consistent with this fact. Further, over the past five years, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs was allocated a fixed percentage of scholarships by the department of Public Service annually. So it is impossible to just look at the names of persons and determine their ethnic origin, as attempted by Ms. Parag,” Saraboo-Halley noted.
She aid under the APNU+AFC administration the scholarships selection committee was reconstituted to represent the multi-ethnic nature of our society and allow for a more transparent process in the awarding of scholarships. “Ms. Parag observes the limited human resources skills across the public service but is unsure what will be done with the Bertram Collins College of the Public Service. This attests to the PPP’s inclination to destroy anything developed by the Granger Administration regardless of the financial and social cost. So she plans to create a code of conduct for Public Servant but sees little value in a training institution that can provide holistic training, far beyond codes of conduct.’
On the issue of the demographics of the scholarships awarded, Saraboo-Halley said at the beginning of this year an analysis was done of the scholarships given out in 2019 for students to attend the University of Guyana. She said it can be seen that the scholarships awarded were consistent with the population of each region. “What must also be noted is that some of our Indigenous students staying in Region 4 or the Amerindian Hostel used Region 4 addresses and thus were captured under Region 4’s data.”
Misinformation
Saraboo-Halley said that over the last two weeks she has listened to a number of the seasoned PPP “Ministers” take to the media to spew misinformation. She said she was hoping that the new ministers would choose to develop an ethos of remaining objective and committed to the truth even as they seek to advance their policies. “However, after Ms. Parag’s press conference I am forced to respond to some of the statements she made given that a decision was made by her to fall into the category of those who feel the need to criticise everything done under the previous administration.”
Saraboo-Halley said that in keeping with the COI into the Public Service which recommended that all public servants on contract employment be transferred to the fixed establishment, over 5000 public servants have transitioned from contract to the fixed establishment. Most persons who remain on contract at the Department of Public Service and throughout the public service are persons over the age of 45 who cannot be put onto the fixed establishment.
Regarding Parag’s claim that the Public Service Commission is not constituted, the former minister, reminded that President David Granger on August 08th, 2018 administered the Oath of office to the members of the Public Service Commission (PSC) for a three-year period. She said the Public Service Commission is a constitutional commission, thus the statement made by Parag that the PSC is not constituted is troubling and should be clarified.
