PM urges Public Servants to study manifestos

Senior public servants have been urged to “study carefully” the Election Manifestos of the parliamentary political parties.{{more}}

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves made this disclosure during his Budget address to the Nation on Monday, January 24.

Gonsalves, who is also Minister of Finance, said the 2011 Budget is embedded in an economic approach outlined in the Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) Election Manifesto of 2010 under the rubric: “Economic Approach: Competitive Economy, Sustainable Growth, Job Creation and Social Justice – Proposals for a Sound Economy.”

This economic approach, he said, forms the core of the ULP’s mandate “so unequivocally delivered to us by the electorate” in the December 13, 2010, elections.

The Prime Minister also noted that he has carefully studied the 2010 Election Manifestos of the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Green Party.

“I found them to be interesting, but limited documents which were internally inconsistent, devoid of a clear strategic path, and which oscillated between the unimaginative and the dull, on the one hand, and wholly impractical and ill-conceived on the other.”

He, however, admitted that there were a “few and isolated” fresh insights or suggestions “here and there” which were appealling, and which have been adopted and placed within the government’s strategic framework for implementation.

“I have urged all senior public servants to study carefully the Election Manifestos of the parliamentary parties. Such an exercise is likely to inform consensus-building and aid national development,” Gonsalves said.