THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it is unaware when former High Commissioner to Canada, Harry Narine Nawbatt would have left his post.The Ministry, in a statement issued yesterday, has revealed that not only did Nawbatt have an arrangement with the former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government, but that his contract was signed “mere weeks before the May 11, 2015 general and regional elections.”

The statement comes in the wake of a $49M lawsuit filed against the APNU+AFC government by Nawbatt, who claims that the terms of his contractual agreement with the PPP/C administration were breached.

But as the government was at pains to point out in the statement, “…there is no record of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs having any involvement in the settlement of the terms of the contract to which Mr Nawbatt has made reference. “The contract on which he is basing his appeal was signed a mere few weeks before the 2015 elections.”

According to the Ministry, Nawbatt and other persons signing such contracts would have been aware of the risks involved in signing so close to national elections.

“The contracts ought to have been extended to May 11th or 12th or end of May, as agreed by the Inter-Party Transition Committee,” the ministry said, adding that that was common practice whenever a change in administration may result in the termination of the service of non-career diplomats, who serve as Heads of Mission at the pleasure of the President of the day on a contractual basis.

“In practice, such Heads of Mission would normally submit their resignations when that administration demits office,” the ministry said.

It was noted that in May 2015, only two career diplomats headed Guyana Missions abroad, and that following the results of the May 11, 2015 elections, the services of all political, as well as non-career officers would have come to an end.

“Of these political appointees, only Ambassador Bayney Karran, who heads Guyana’s Embassy in Washington, DC and who is also Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the Organisation of American States, submitted a letter of resignation,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said, adding:
“In doing so, he indicated his availability and willingness to serve the new administration if so desired.”

According to the statement, Nawbatt and the other political officers submitted no such letters of resignation or expression of willingness to serve.

“His contract, like those of the other non-career officers,” the Foreign Ministry noted, “can be said to have been thereby frustrated. It is remarkable, therefore, that although not surprisingly given the effrontery of some of those officers, that Mr H. Nawbatt could claim to have been, since May 11, 2015, in a position to give and receive instructions and to discharge duties as a diplomatic representative of Guyana.”

Nawbatt officially took up the post on February 10, 2015, and his services were terminated with effect from August 31, 2015.

He was written to on June 8, 2015 by then acting Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Audrey Jardine-Waddell, who notified him that his appointment as High Commissioner would end on August 31, 2015, and that he would be reposted to Guyana.