AFC no police of APNU
Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin
Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin

–Gaskin says party works well with coalition partners

By Ravin Singh

THE relationship between the coalition partners – the Alliance For Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) – is not fractured, as is being speculated by some.

This was expressed by AFC Treasurer and executive member Dominic Gaskin, who made it clear that the role of the AFC is not to police the activities of APNU, the larger faction of the coalition government.

Gaskin, who is also Minister of Business and Tourism, was at the time speaking at the AFC’s bi-weekly press conference which was held on Friday at the party’s headquarters in Kitty. “I think we have a good working relationship with our coalition partners,” the party’s executive member said in response to a question about the relationship between the parties appearing fractured.

Asked by the Guyana Chronicle about the effectiveness of the AFC at the level of Government, and the party’s ability to influence the outcome of national issues, Gaskin said the “effectiveness of the AFC in the coalition can be seen.”

The AFC had contended in April of this year that too many responsibilities were concentrated in the hands of Minister of State, Joseph Harmon. The party had expressed the view that this was the root cause of many issues that had emerged in the coalition. Controversy was at the time, surrounding the appointment by Harmon of an Advisor on Business Development, and the AFC had said “…the issues surrounding this (disagreement) have their roots in the concentration of the powers of the office of the Cabinet Secretary, the Minister of State in the Ministry of the Presidency, and the effective Head of the Presidential Secretariat in a single person.”

The AFC had gone on to state it was of the view that Guyana would be best served if those powers divided. “The responsibilities of each of the above portfolios are substantial and of critical importance to the smooth operation of the Government, and would benefit from separate appointments,” the AFC had stated.

The AFC had said that it had mandated its leadership in Cabinet to have those issues raised and addressed “as a matter of national importance.”
Despite this call by the AFC, however, Harmon was not asked to relinquish responsibility for any of the positions, and this was defended by President David Granger.

Asked about this, Gaskin said he does not recall the incident involving the Minister of State. “I can’t recall the specific incident or the comments attributed to the AFC,” he said.

Gaskin went on to state that his party was not elected to office to serve as a watchdog for the APNU. “That’s not what we were elected to do,” he said, adding that the AFC was elected on the basis of a manifesto which sets out some clear priorities which Government wants to achieve.

“I think that (our performance) over the period of our term in office is how we will judge the effectiveness of the Government. If you want to sub-divide the responsibilities, you can perhaps look and decide whether the AFC component was effective. What you’re suggesting is that our role is to somehow police our coalition partner, and how effectively we do that. (That) is not what we are there for,” Gaskin said.

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