GINA staffers resign over non payment of salaries

GINA staffers resign over non payment of salaries

At least five employees of the Government Information Agency have left their jobs over the past few weeks over the non-payment of their salaries. A number of other employees have left the job over the past five months.

Just last week, employees staged a sit in exercise to protest the non-payment of their salaries for the past three months. The Government Information Agency was hit with the cuts to the national budget earlier this year.

The Opposition parties used their majority in the National Assembly to slash the budget for the agency. GINA’s multi-million dollar budget was reduced to $1 in the budget.

The Opposition parties APNU and AFC believe GINA through its programming has not been serving in the best interest of the nation but has rather been operating as a political side kick for the party in government.

Opposition Leader David Granger has complained to the President and the Speaker of the National Assembly in the past about the coverage being given to the Opposition by the Government Information Agency. He “rubbished” suggestions that GINA should only be focusing on the work of the executive.

Granger said GINA must recognise the Government is made up of various branches and not just the executive and therefore all of those branches should be covered fairly by GINA.

In a statement just after the budget cuts earlier this year, Presidential Information Liason officer Kwame McCoy said GINA is fulfilling a constitutional obligation of the Government of Guyana; noting that every Government has a body through which it can report to its citizens on what it has been doing and about its policies and plans.

This is the second year in a row that GINA has seen its budgetary allocations reduced to $1.

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