Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of partially dismantling or otherwise reorganizing a company for the purpose of making it more efficient and therefore more profitable. It generally involves selling off portions of the company and making severe staff reductions. Restructuring is often done as part of a bankruptcy or of a takeover by another firm, particularly a leveraged buyout by a private equity firm. It may also be done by a new CEO hired specifically to make the difficult and controversial decisions required to save or reposition the company. So says Wikipedia, (the free encyclopaedia) on the internet.
Restructuring has become the latest weasel word of the administration of President James Michel. Last Saturday evening SBC gave the President considerable prime air time to make a statement featuring the word Restructuring. Cynics are saying that this was an attempt by the government to steal the thunder from SNP, which had organised a candle light procession the night before in solidarity with the government employees who had been and continue to be “sacked” without notice.
In the video-taped news item, President Michel is shown pinning epaulets on a handful of military officers at the
This newspaper has discovered, for example, that in 2006 the Department of Defence – who’s Minister responsible is none other that President Michel, had overspent its allocated budget of SR 77,297,000 by a SR10, 554,000. The overspending is clearly a violation of the Article 154 (6) of the Constitution. The Constitution states, “if it is found that any amount appropriated by the Appropriation Act (the budget) for any purpose is insufficient or that any moneys have been expended for any purpose in excess of the amount appropriated for that purpose by the Act, a supplementary estimate, showing the sum of money required or spent, shall be laid before the National Assembly.” So far the Government has not tabled a supplementary estimate to the National Assembly. In any event it should have done so before the fiscal year ended on December 31.
On this occasion, as in many occasions before, President Michel as the Minister of Defence knew before the financial year ended that he had overspent on his budget allocation. In fact, in his 2007 budget presentation to the National Assembly at the beginning of December last year, the Minister of Finance, Danny Faure provided detailed information about the spending of the Department of Defence which showed that the overspending for 2006 would be SR 2,001,000 more than the approved budget. As it turned out the overspending was even greater.
Indeed, although Faure knew when he was presenting the 2007 budget that the Government had overspent the entire budget for 2006 by a staggering SR 376,730,000, he did not bother to place a supplementary estimate before the National Assembly to legalise the overspending in conformity with the Constitution. This demonstrates the level of contempt by President Michel and Minister Danny Faure for the Constitution, to which they have even put their signature.
There is here, in our view, prima-facie evidence to impeach both President Michel as the Minister responsible for the Department of Defence and Minister Danny Faure as the Minister of Finance for violating the Constitution. Violation of the Constitution by public officials who have sworn an oath of office must be viewed as a serious offence in the same way that treason is viewed. Both President Michel and Minister Danny Faure had to take an oath before assuming office. This oath requires the office holder to say, among other things, that he or she “will faithfully and diligently perform my duties and discharge my functions…” Spending public funds that are not authorised by law is not a way to “faithfully and diligently discharge” the “functions” as ministers.
According to Article 74(1) of the Constitution, “The National Assembly may, by resolution approved by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the number of its members, pass a vote of censure on a Minister.” Impeaching either the President or the Minister of Finance is unlikely under present circumstances.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: A weasel word is a word that is intended to, or has the effect of, softening the force of a potentially loaded or otherwise controversial statement. This phrase appears in Stewart Chaplin’s short story Stained Glass Political Platform published in 1900 in The Century Magazine according to The Macmillan Dictionary of Contemporary Phrase and Fable : “Why, weasel words are words that suck the life out of the words next to them, just as a weasel sucks the egg and leaves the shell.” Thus, weasel words suck the meaning out of a statement while seeming to keep the idea intact, and are particularly associated with political pronouncements.
Weasel words are used euphemistically. The term invokes the image of a weasel being sneaky and well able to wiggle out of a tight spot. Generally, weasel terms are statements that are misleading because they lack the normal substantiations of their truthfulness, as well as the background information against which these statements are made. Weasel terms are the equivalent of spin in the political sphere in British English.
Weasel words are almost always intended to deceive or draw attention from something the speaker doesn’t want emphasized, rather than being the inadvertent result of the speaker’s or writer’s poor but honest attempt at description.