PNP Raps Gov’t For Failure To Communicate

Vocal team mem­bers of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Council of Spokespersons yes­ter­day cho­rused con­cerns about the “infor­ma­tion gap” mar­ring governance.

“It is clear that we are going to have a lot of work to do,” declared Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller as she addressed jour­nal­ists at the PNP’s Old Hope Road, St Andrew, head­quar­ters after the coun­cil’s first meet­ing yes­ter­day. “We will be keep­ing the Government on its toes,” assert­ed Simpson Miller as Opposition Spokesman on Finance Dr Peter Phillips rapped the Government for keep­ing qui­et on crit­i­cal mat­ters since tak­ing office a lit­tle over a month ago. Phillips sug­gest­ed yes­ter­day that lack of trans­paren­cy on the part of the Government was hav­ing a crip­pling effect on pub­lic con­fi­dence. Simpson Miller and Phillips were accom­pa­nied by sev­er­al mem­bers of the 22-strong coun­cil. The oppo­si­tion leader said mem­bers assigned to port­fo­lios have been man­dat­ed to estab­lish task forces in each area. But the focus was cen­tred on claims the Holness admin­is­tra­tion had already fall­en down on the job.

Focus On Drought

Simpson Miller urged the Government to imme­di­ate­ly focus on drought-strick­en areas, a sen­ti­ment that was echoed by Ian Hayles, the new spokesman on water.

Phillips zoomed in on what he described as mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions from Finance Minister Audley Shaw. He high­light­ed con­cerns a per­cep­tion that the Government was ill-pre­pared to car­ry out its man­date. He stressed that Shaw, as a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, must be cir­cum­spect in lan­guage and trans­par­ent and accu­rate in action. “The uncer­tain­ty and fail­ure to com­mu­ni­cate will not be good for pub­lic con­fi­dence,” he warned. Phillips stressed that the coun­cil was deter­mined that the gains made under the PNP’s watch would not be sac­ri­ficed. He said there were signs of a slow­down of eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty, evi­dent in a slight upward move­ment in inter­est rates, reflect­ing some uncer­tain­ty and rip­ples in the retail sec­tor. Peter Bunting, the for­mer nation­al secu­ri­ty min­is­ter, returned to his pet peeve — con­cerns about a spike in mur­ders that he said, appeared to have bro­ken a four-month trend.

He said he expect­ed the Government to pro­vide addi­tion­al resources for crime-fight­ing and urged care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion about its plans to pur­chase sec­ond-hand vehi­cles for the police. “Proceed very care­ful­ly, as this may be short-term val­ue, as police vehi­cles are used exten­sive­ly,” stressed Bunting. He also called for National Security Minister Robert Montague, his suc­ces­sor in the post, to dis­cour­age the politi­ciz­ing of crime-fight­ing. Story orig­i­nat­ed here: PNP Raps Gov’t For Failure To Communicate