Dear Editor,
In any democracy, it is socially acceptable that political candidates will be diehard supportive of their political party’s actions, irrespective of how one may scrutinise or criticise their view. That is decent. However, what is even more imperative is that they do not allow their support to manifest into the dismantling of any society, particularly when there is a global pandemic of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Ulita Moore’s move to the Appellate Court, despite denial by the Full Court to appeal its decision, show regrettably that this candidate does not stand on the side of humanity.
Unquestionably, it is her right to appeal decisions she may disagree with. However, when the Full Court denied leave to appeal its decision, the court must have contemplated that this case has no merit and would only exhaust the judicial process and that the current state of affairs in the world and moreso in Guyana, needs a legitimate government in the shortest time possible.
We saw on national news that many persons are forbidden to leave their homes to avoid the spread of the disease. However, the majority of Guyanese still leave their home simply because they cannot afford to feed their families. These include the ordinary broom-sellers, roadside sellers, taxi drivers, the latter who have to reduce their number of passengers by half, and many others who are now in devastating financial conditions, and consequentially they leave their homes and put themselves in danger. The United States, India, and other countries passed relief packages simply to get their people to stay home. When will our next government be formed for parliament to do this? This is why we need a government in the shortest time possible.
Editor, they could enact fiscal policies for financial relief packages so that the ordinary person gets to feed his/her family. The problem at hand is that the current regime is in a caretaker mode and only parliament could enact such relief and because parliament is dissolved, no relief is a guarantee. Similarly, while one may argue that there exists a Consolidated Fund, they need to understand that as per the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act of 2003, the praxis is that it must be done and be passed by Parliament through an Appropriation bill.
However, if that bill is not passed, the minister is subject to drawing rights on the Consolidated Fund, providing that, for each month, the minister could only draw one-twelfth of the monies that were spent by the ministry in the immediately preceding fiscal year. To put this into perspective, assuming that the Ministry of Health spent the entire GYD$2.6 billion allocated for Budget 2019, it means that for the month of April, the minister could only draw GUY$312 million. Following, if that money were to be distributed to the population as relief it would, therefore, mean that for the whole month, a Guyanese citizen would have to live on GYD$421, and an average of GYD$13.50 per day. This is highly saddening.
Ultimately, for any Guyanese to receive any stipend from any government in their fight against COVID-19, a legitimate government needs to sworn in. It is only through this transition will Guyana receive international loans and Parliament could enact financial relief to help the ordinary citizen function daily. The government and its people must work together in this fight against the disease. The call by foreign powers for the recount is not to rig the elections or frustrate the electoral process. If the second declaration by Mr Mingo is the true representation of the will of the people, then the containers will not say anything different. Truth does not negate itself. This is not the time to appeal cases, which were denied leave in the first place. This is the time to recount the ballots, swear in the new president and tackle COVID-19 by providing measures to help the ordinary person. As such, definitely, we could see more Guyanese staying home.
Yours faithfully,
Vejendra Datt
