“President will determine structure of his government”
– Jagdeo on appointment of new Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Cabinet Secretary
Kaieteur News – Vice President Jagdeo (VP) told media operatives on Thursday that it is up President Irfaan Ali to determine the structure of his government.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
Jagdeo was at the time responding to a question, which was raised by Kaieteur News on whether the government has plans to fill the portfolio of Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary .
The posts have been empty since the death of Dr. Roger luncheon, last August. Luncheon was the longest serving Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary. He served in the post between 1992 and 2015.
Asked if and when the government plans to fill the vacancy for a Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Cabinet Secretary, Jagdeo posited, “There is nothing magical about that…”
He continued that “The President determines the structure of his Ministry which is the Presidency, and he determines the structure of his government.”
To further bolster his position, the VP made reference to the previous A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government. He noted that that administration had a lot of persons with designations and still jobs were lost, and taxes were increased.
He stressed that the Coalition, “practically destroyed all the sectors of the economy by higher taxation, by harassing people. We didn’t build no infrastructure, we screwed up on GPL; basically, it was a useless government, but they had beautiful structures; they had [a] really wonderful structure”.
“Remember one time, they had about 40 something external advisors. Google that, let’s go back and look at the past. They name a long list of external advisors’, lots of sycophants that they brought back…,” Jagdeo added.
The VP stated that even with all the structure, the APNU administration only held one press conference dedicated to oil and gas, in the five years they were in government, “but we can’t fault them; they had a beautiful structure. We don’t work that way. We look at the effectiveness…and we’re sometimes revered to that… [But] that rubs some of the do gooders or contrives do gooders; it rubs them the wrong way.”
He said that his government looks at what is important to its people and get it done.
Jagdeo stressed that therefore, there is nothing magical about appointing the Head of the Presidential Secretariat and the Cabinet Secretary.
