Dear Editor,
Nurses have to get up every morning (or afternoon if they work nightshift) and prepare for the possibility that they will encounter a patient with a deadly virus. The weird part is that they do this every day, but usually no one pays attention.
In times where the world is on watch, people suddenly become keenly aware of the risk that nurses take every day. They think about the care they provide to the most vulnerable and the support they provide their loved ones.
The difference between nurses and the rest of the world during a crisis like the Coronavirus is that nurses still go to work. Nurses are on the front line of the defence against this deadly disease. And that is why duty-free concessions to purchase motor vehicles for nurses should be considered by the Government of Guyana, but strong rules must be enforced on those who are benefiting from duty-free concessions to purchase motor vehicles to carry out their official duties.
If the Auditor General was to do an audit into all those public officials who are benefiting from duty-free concession to purchase motor vehicles for official use, it would expose that the majority of those duty concessions were never taken into official use.
The majority of Guyana’s top public officials who are beneficiaries of duty-free concessions have state vehicles assigned to them 24 hrs at their disposal with a driver, while their duty free concession vehicles are parked under their house waiting to be sold in three years with a nice profit.
Some of those public officers are: Ministers of Government, Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent secretaries, CEOs, Regional Executive Offi-cers, Regional Chairmen, Vice Chairmen, General Managers and the list can go on.
Why the same cannot be extended to Guyana’s nurses who are presently risking their lives to serve the people of Guyana. Some of these nurses must travel all hours in the nights to reach for work.
Guyana does not have a reliable public transportation system and as such all the necessary support must be given to our health care workers without a protest.
Finally, public support for healthcare workers is critically important.
Any negative commentary about healthcare workers and the difficult choices they may be forced to make needs to be avoided.
We hope that government’s and public expressions of gratitude for the service and dedication of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic continue – helping to promote a sense of pride in the critical role our healthcare workers have played.
Yours faithfully,
Govind Singh
Former Deputy Regional Executive
Officer
