- members paid to be scrutineers out protesting
THE government yesterday said registration scrutineers of the main opposition party, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) who are being paid using public funds are out protesting.

The claim came from Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, who repeated government’s intention to investigate the misuse of funds given to the PNCR to pay scrutineers engaged in the current house-to-house registration exercise.

At his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday, Dr Luncheon said the protests by the opposition under the banner of the rising cost of living borders on “extremism” as the government is not responsible for price increases.

Commenting on the opposition’s claim that the relief package announced Wednesday by President Bharrat Jagdeo was not enough, Dr Luncheon said that the measures were agreed to after extensive countrywide consultations involving government ministers.

The Cabinet Secretary further stated that on Thursday the PNCR “recklessly” abandoned the parliamentary session to discuss the cost of living, and instead went about protesting, “cajoling and threatening” school administrators and businesses in the city.

Dr Luncheon said the PNCR received $100M from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to pay opposition party scrutineers and has not accounted for the money over the past four months.

“Information is also available that the opposition scrutineers are being used to agitate against the government to protest,” Dr. Luncheon was quoted as saying in the brief statement issued by the Government Information Agency (GINA).

Yesterday, he said the Auditor General’s office would be conducting an investigation into the use of the funds by the PNCR, and that GECOM had abandoned past practices and issued the money to the party “en bloc.”

Dr. Luncheon said that it has been noted that some of those being paid to be scrutineers are out protesting with the PNCR, which held a second day of protest yesterday in the city.

This time, opposition leader, Mr. Robert Corbin, carried the band of protestors outside the Office of the President, New Garden Street, bypassing Police barricades blocking the immediate vicinity of the Presidential Secretariat.

The protestors Thursday also ignored Police guidelines for the protest and Dr Luncheon said the Police have failed to get their hands on the organisers, moreso, those on the public address system who were “cajoling and threatening.”

President Jagdeo, on Wednesday, announced government’s plan to absorb the increase in the price of flour, and said it was giving a $4,000 cost of living “adjustment” and a 5% pay hike to public sector workers.

He said the measures would make “a significant contribution” in helping to cushion the immediate impact of world market prices on domestic consumers.

The $4,000 tax-free cost of living adjustment will go towards government workers, teachers, soldiers, policemen, firemen and prison officers whose basic salaries are below $50, 000 when a 5% salary increase is calculated.

To stave off increases in the price of bread, biscuits, and pastries, the government is bearing the price increase in flour sold to 22 bakeries which control about 95% of the market. In addition, President Jagdeo said the government has also bought 200,000 one kilogramme packets of flour for sale (minus the price increase) to vulnerable groups. This sale will be carried out by the New Guyana Marketing Corporation.

The GMC trucks selling this flour will be out at major East Coast markets today.

Mr. Jagdeo also announced that under the ‘Grow More’ food campaign, which promotes increased production by commercial and subsistence farmers, chemicals and fertilisers, along with some 600,000 packages of vegetable seeds, will be distributed across all ten regions of Guyana at a cost of approximately $20 million.