Former Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Elisabeth Harper has been rehired as a consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Subject Minister Carl Greenidge told reporters on Thursday that Harper’s focus will be on the country’s sovereignty. He said too that Harper who was a long standing diplomat will also assist the Ministry with documentation.
“Mrs. Harper has been retained by the Ministry latterly to work with us in a couple of areas; she has rather unique skills and as Director General and member of the staff of the Ministry for many years, she had worked very closely on the matters pertaining to sovereignty and the documentation,” said Minister Greenidge.
He described Harper’s skills as “unique”, noting that recruiting her will assist his Ministry significantly in the areas of sovereignty and documentation.
“… because of the delicacy of that area (sovereignty) we have been utilising the skills of Mrs. Harper to assist us in that area and that is ongoing and it will continue.”
The minister explained that in the area of documentation, there is a problem of identification and Harper’s expertise will assist greatly in identifying the material lodged at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“In this Ministry I am able to point to you in many rooms which have many documents and few people can tell you what the documents are. That is one side and we try to utilise the knowledge of those who have worked here in the past,” Greenidge added.
Additionally, he disclosed that with the high turnover of staff and issues of storage and maintenance of documents, staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been challenged to carry out policies as effectively as they should.
Meanwhile, Harper served for decades at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but stepped down as Director General in the lead up to the May 2015 General and Regional elections. That year, Harper accepted the Prime Ministerial candidacy under the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) and ran alongside former President Donald Ramotar.
The PPP/C was in power at the time but lost the elections to the APNU+AFC coalition led by now President David Granger. Following the May 2016 General and Regional Elections, Harper was offered a place in the National Assembly by the PPP/C, an offer she refused.
However, she had indicated subsequent to the campaign season that she was not opposed to working with the APNU-AFC administration in the areas of foreign affairs and diplomacy.
Harper has worked in Government service for approximately 40 years.