Vorona

[imperialpearl]

Prisban appointed to lead CoG
Former President of the Treasury Board of Vorona, Errol Prisban has been selected by President Netherwood to

govern over Vorona's internal and external affairs as new Chief Secretary of the non-partisan Council of Government. 

4th November 5641 | By William Callender

Newly appointed Chief Secretary of the Council of Government, Mr Errol Prisban

Ending days of speculation surrounding the composition of the supposed Council of Government, the non-elected body which will be responsible for the general management of Vorona's internal and external affairs for the foreseeable future, the Chief Secretary of the Council has been identified in Errol Prisban. Prisban, a career administrator and former President of the Treasury Board, accepted President Netherwood’s invitation to establish the Council of Government and thus transition Vorona towards “a new era of social and economic development.” Mr. Prisban met with President Netherwood at Federation House earlier this morning, where the two men engaged in a lengthy discussion on the concept of the Council of Government and the recommendations of the Gordon Commission. During an impromptu press conference on the stairs of Federation House, Prisban stated that the CoG had come at a time of great uncertainty within the nation and had inherited much of the issues which crippled the previous government and ultimately created the impetus for its formation. There had been considerable speculation surrounding Mr. Prisban’s appointment as head of the CoG. With the Voronan population having registered their frustration with the nation’s partisan politics, a political appointee had been an unlikely choice, recognising that, notwithstanding the automatic support such an appointee might enjoy from the now-lame-duck legislature, they must also capture the confidence of the broader public. “People have become tired of the paralysis of partisan politics. The schisms and endless corruption scandals not only paved the way for the CoG but also made it nearly impossible for a “politician” to be accepted at the head of this new body. It was out of this consideration that President Netherwood had gone to extreme lengths to advance a purely technocratic structure, comprised of experts and experienced administrators. Prisban, the former President of the Treasury Board, had been seen as an early choice for some, granted that he had demonstrated his acumen for public administration in guiding the nation’s public finances through numerous internal and external shocks.

When asked whether he intended to honour and implement the Gordon Commission's recommendations, Prisban stated that the CoG would be wholly committed to the report's recommendations and would likely conclude once most, if not all, of them had been implemented/operationalised. “I think it is important to recognise that the CoG was created to implement the report’s recommendations in full and to be devoid of the politics which make many of the circumstances/conditions referenced within the report possible,” Prisban answered. The Gordon Commission, in surveying the various social, economic and political issues within Vorona, stands as an assessment of the nation’s post-independence performance. Also present was Roland Sinanan, S.C., who had been appointed as the council’s chief legal advisor and Vorona’s Attorney-General. According to Sinanan, although various sections of the Voronan constitution had been virtually suspended, it remained the nation’s highest legal framework and thus the judiciary remained largely untouched by the CoG’s formation. “What I can speak to now, notwithstanding future reforms, is that the judiciary has maintained much of its autonomy. Although some sections of the constitution, particularly with respect to judicial review, have been suspended, the courts will continue to hear cases related to criminal and civil matters.”

Prisban noted that beyond the Gordon Commission’s recommendations and constitutional reform, a general retooling of Vorona’s economic model was needed. He noted that in his time as President of the Treasury Board, he had witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies of fiscal practices which stunted national economic development, both nationally and provincially. He noted that in sporadic conversations with numerous economists and financial experts, the nature of Vorona’s “monocrop” economy became a recurring talking point. This monocrop economics refers to the fact that, given the general decay of Vorona’s former industrial capacity, the nation primarily relies on the cultivation, refining and export of a singular profitable agricultural crop: sugarcane. Prisban, an economic historian himself, offered a brief thesis of the economics of sugar in Vorona, drawing from his seminal work “Profit and Exploitation: An Inquiry into the Nature and Consequences of the Exploitation of Nations”. He argued that the development of the sugarcane industry in Vorona and other colonial territories was not a mere venture of the colonial administration but the foundation of capitalism in the colonial empires of old. “The plantocracy and the accompanying plantation economy, categorised by the exploitation of enslaved labour, provided the colonial powers of Artania and Dovani with the seed capital needed to fuel their industrial growth,” the book reads. Prisban noted that although the book had been authored when he was much younger and that in ageing he had lost much of his youthful fervor for direct revolution, much of its musing are still relevant as he pointed to the book's conclusion which pointed to the need for former colonial states to industrialise in order to shed themnselves of the monocrop economics imposed on them by the former colonial class. He noted that although the CoG would not be guided by his musings, it was nonetheless important for the nation’s economic circumstances to be brought into context. “In building a new economic model for Vorona, we must envision a government that positions itself within the national economy to accrue direct benefits to the people. In order to get there, we must appreciate where we have come from,” Prisban explained. Prisban is expected to create an Economic Advisory Committee, populated by experienced technocrats and business leaders of varying ideologies who will provide the CoG with advice beyond the Gordon Commission recommendations and the CoG’s internal plan.