Full Cabinet to be appointed this week – President

Just hours after taking the Oath of Office, President Dr Irfaan Ali, on Monday, met with the staffers at the Ministry of the Presidency where he pledged his Government’s support for further developing the public service.

The President met with the staffers as part of the transition process. During his meeting, he thanked the staff for continued delivery of quality service to the Guyanese people and pledged to work with them as a team.
“As President you have a partner in development. There will be, of course, in any transition, changes of approach. There will be new and emerging areas of responsibility. The plans and programmes of Government may have a shift in various areas. The priorities may have a shift, but, at the end of it, all of it must resolve to the ultimate benefit of the Guyanese people,” the President said during a brief address to the employees.
The newly sworn-in President told the employees that the office of the President is the highest in the land and, therefore, they were expected to lead by example. He called upon the staffers to deliver the highest level of service at the highest standard and to behave in a manner befitting the office they serve.
He related that he was going to work in tandem with the public service to see the people of Guyana benefit from the resources of the country.
“The ultimate goal of the Government is to deliver quality, efficient goods and services to every citizen of our country. I want to thank all of you for your continued service to country and I want to assure you that Guyana requires the skills and experience of all of us to work in a collective and a collaborative manner if we are to build a strong and sustainable country, if we are to build a country in which all of us could be proud of, a country in which all Guyanese can celebrate and to be happy to be part of,” he noted.
“This office is the highest office of our country and, therefore, the employees and workers who work in this office are expected to deliver the highest level of service at the highest standard and to behave in a manner that is befitting the highest office of our country,” the President added.
Ali went on to note that it was not just the President who would make the work environment successful, but rather their ability to lead and function as a team. He told the staffers that he has always believed in the power of teamwork and as such, they could expect no less than to be part of a team that was focused on delivering improved quality of life to the citizenry.

He called on the employees to recognise that they have to operate at the highest standard and in the most efficient way to set the bar for the rest of the public service and for the rest of the country. He told them that they could not operate in a way that fuelled insecurities and distrust in the Government systems, adding that those actions would lead to disunity in the governance systems.
“This is the way we will approach the future. Before the end of this week, we hope to have all the Ministries established with the Cabinet Ministers appointed. The areas of responsibilities would have to be detailed and gazetted, and then we can move a more broad and detailed discussion in relation to the priorities of the new government, so we are in this together for a better Guyana,” President Ali said.
President Ali was accompanied by Prime Minister Mark Phillips and Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira.