By Fareeza Haniff

PRESIDENT David Granger has asserted that persons should not be given Government appointments simply because they did a political favour or because they are friends with a Government official.The President made his position known during his weekly programme, The Public Interest, when he weighed in on the ongoing controversy regarding businessman Brian ‘BK’ Tiwarie being

appointed a personal business adviser to Minister of State Joseph Harmon.

Harmon had justified Tiwarie’s appointment by noting that the Government was rewarding persons who had contributed to the APNU+AFC election campaign. The minister admitted that the President did not know he had appointed BK. The President rescinded Tiwari’s appointment when he got to know of it.

Questioned about the controversy, the President said, “I don’t think business persons or any person should be able to buy political favour or political patronage. I would expect that, in the fullness of time, that would be diminished and decisions would be made purely on the basis of objective criteria. People should be judged by their merit; I don’t think a person should be appointed because he is a friend of a politician or because he has done a political favour.”

He noted that he is fully satisfied with the performance of Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, and does not need Tiwarie’s services.

Honorific appointments
Tiwarie and 33 other persons were given certificates of appointment to various positions following the May 11, 2015 general elections, and according to President Granger, this is where the term “honorific” originated.

“There were people in the diaspora who supported the campaign, and at the end of the campaign there was a clamour for recognition of their contribution, and that was when the certificate was invented and maybe three dozen were given out; and that is why the term honorific was used, because it was simply a certificate honouring them for their contribution.

“I cannot say they constituted an advisory panel; it is ad hoc. These were people I met in Toronto, these were people I met in Queens, New York, and in Florida, and they wanted to be recognized for their contribution.

“I don’t think business persons or any person should be able to buy political favour or political patronage.”– President Granger

“The demand came from members of both the Alliance For Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU),” President Granger clarified.

Asked whether this constituted corrupt practice, the President disagreed, and noted that those persons are not employees of the Government.

Tiwarie had contended that President Granger’s decision to hack his appointment as advisor on business to the Minister of State was rash.
“It may well be that, in quieter time, the President may have an opportunity to reflect upon the propriety of impulsive decision-making,” he posited.

According to Tiwarie, other ministers, including Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, have made several such appointments, and those did not receive “sustained campaign and public outcry.”

Tiwarie suggested that President Granger should revoke those appointments as well. “Maybe, in the interest of fairness, the President should revoke all of those (appointments) too, and for the very reason given when he acted impulsively in revoking the appointment at a time when Minister Harmon was out of the country”, Tiwari suggested, but President Granger has dismissed Tiwarie’s suggestion.

“I wouldn’t respond to Mr. Tiwarie,” he said. “Mr. Tiwarie doesn’t determine my policy, and I’ll just leave it at that, I wouldn’t respond to Mr. Tiwarie,” the President told reporters on Monday evening.