The government of Guyana has written to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) secretary general Sir Edwin Carrington affirming that it has lost all confidence in senior trade negotiator in the Office of Trade Negotiations Carl Greenidge and will not allow him to represent Guyana’s cause because he acted unprofessionally by making statements that Guyana lacks visionary leadership and is in a nightmare.
Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir, who was acting foreign minister during the time of Greenidge’s statements, said that not only did he act unprofessionally but he also has no moral grounds for making such statements.
Greenidge, who is also a former finance minister under the People’s National Congress (PNC), in his capacity as a trade negotiator for CARICOM represents all the governments of the region including Guyana and it was unprofessional of him to make those pronouncements on Guyana, Nadir said.
According to Nadir, there are certain professional ethics that Greenidge should have adhered to since he works for the government and this prevents him from being critical of it.
“If you are working with an organization it is unprofessional for you to criticize it from within. If you don’t believe in what it is doing and if you feel strongly you should quit before criticising it,” Nadir said.
He added that, as a citizen of Guyana, Greenidge is allowed to make those comments but as an employee of the government of Guyana Greenidge acted very unprofessionally.
This, he said, is also Cabinet’s position.
“Greenidge does not qualify if we compare the performances of the two administrations the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and the PNC when Carl Greenidge was finance minister. They are poles apart,” the labour minister stated.
Nadir recalled the period under Greenidge’s tenure as finance minister when the per capita debt was in excess of US$8,000 per person.
“That is why we say that he has no moral authority whatsoever to say that this country lacks visionary leadership and it is in this nightmare. We have done an exceedingly good job in the PPP/C administration of rebuilding the economy and putting it on a path of four years of sustained positive economic growth,” Nadir declared.
The labour minister further stated that if the performances of Greenidge as finance minister versus Dr Ashni Singh or former finance minister and now President Bharrat Jagdeo were to be compared they would be poles apart; a hopeless one and the other one of consistent growth, more opportunities and expansion of the economy.
Greenidge as Finance Minister under the PNC was an utter failure given that there was a freeze in wages in all state corporations for a number of years. However, under the PPP/C administration every year the public sector wages increased, the minister stated.
Nadir also dispelled views that Greenidge’s statements represent the majority of Guyanese.
He added that with the per capita debt that Guyana and with the wages at the time of Greenidge’s stewardship as finance minister it would have taken every man woman and child working for seven years at an average income to pay off his or her portion of the debt.
