–former coalition officials reveal

THE APNU+AFC tenure under former President David Granger was plagued by weak leadership on addressing corruption and social cohesion, according to senior officials who were close to the former administration.
Former APNU+AFC member of parliament, Michael Carrington said Granger gave his ministers freeway and wasn’t so much a good communicator in terms of communicating with his non-Cabinet MPs.

“Right through we had problems till[sic] 2020 between APNU, AFC,” the former MP told host Freddie Kissoon on the Gildarie – Freddie Kissoon Show on Wednesday.
He added: “To me, there wasn’t any co-operation, there was always that fear and the fear mostly came up. APNU always feared that the AFC will climb the ladder and if they climb the ladder too much, then you may have to give them more and that was one of the biggest fears…”
Rajendra Bissessar, a former AFC senior executive, who also appeared on the show, said nothing was done by the then Ministry of Social Cohesion, but the subject minister was not held accountable.
“He [Granger] refused to hold his ministers accountable. I put you there to perform I need results, you don’t give me results, I put somebody else… he just left it to flow. He did not lead,” Bissessar said.

He cited the increase in salaries for MPs which was unfortunately justified by the AFC’s Moses Nagamootoo who served as Prime Minister at the time in the coalition administration.
“Then the corruption with the drug bond. You have a minister who is clearly corrupt and Granger who is this great President, did nothing,” Bissessar said.
He believes that had the APNU+AFC accepted the results of the no-confidence motion and the subsequent 2020 elections results that the parties would have been in a better position to return to office.

Leonard Craig, a former AFC member, indicated that the weakest aspect of the APNU+AFC government was the politics, despite there being some bright spots.