PRESIDENTIAL Adviser on Governance, Gail Teixeira on Saturday night responded to Mr. Aubrey Norton’s accusations that the government was dishonest when she said that the Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) delegation had not submitted their economic proposals. Ms. Teixeira stated that she was unaware that the Region 10 delegation had in fact sent their proposals on August 9 when she made her television comment on August 10.
Having been in Parliament until 15:30 hours on August 10 she had not been sent the document by Mr. Sharma Solomon and was unaware that he had sent this to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon whilst she was in Parliament.
The Presidential Adviser said Mr. Norton should remember that the agreement to exchange notes and comments on the technical team regarding the electricity issues and the economic proposals commenced at the July 23 meeting and in keeping with this, she had sent the government’s response on July 24 to which the Region 10 delegation did not respond, despite reminders.
Mr. Solomon on July 27 said he sent it but later on admitted on July 31 that he did not. The government kept again to commitments made on July 31 for each side to submit their draft terms of reference (TORs) for the technical team and submitted these and its economic proposals on August 3, she said.
Again there was no response until August 5 when Mr. Solomon submitted their draft TORs on the technical team and at the August 8, meeting committed to send their proposals for the economic proposals on August 9, she said.
“Mr. Norton is fishing for reasons to justify their unusual stalling between July 23 and August 9 to submit their proposals on what they considered to be two of the main issues upon which they said a return to normalcy was based,” Teixeira said.