THE region’s premium Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), seems once again headed for a crisis over the recruitment of a long-overdue Executive Director. 

And questions are being raised over the attention being paid by the Ministers responsible for the agricultural sector are expected to ensure transparency in the choice of the best possible candidate.
The Trinidad-based institution has had an acting Executive Director for more than two years in the person of a retired former Caribbean Director of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), who has to demit office not later than July 31.
However, Ministers of Agriculture were alarmed to discover that up to this late stage, the recruitment process remains under what has been described as “a veil of secrecy” amid reports of a trio of possible candidates, all from within CARDI and not known to have had any outstanding record of achievements!
The selection process involves the Board of Directors, comprised of senior technical officials, which will then go to the Board of Governors comprising Ministers of Agriculture. Since under CARICOM’s quasi-cabinet structure, Guyana has lead responsibility for regional agricultural development, it is felt that its government should perhaps become actively acquainted with the modalities and status of the process to choose a new CARDI Director.
Written By Rickey Singh