Govt denies hiring all Afro-Guyanese Permanent Secretaries

Minister of State Joseph Harmon has denied claims that the coalition Government deliberately appointment mostly Afro-Guyanese as Permanent Secretaries in the various Ministries.
Economist and former Alliance For Change (AFC) Executive Member, Sase Singh, in a letter to the editor that was published in a local newspaper on Wednesday, took a swing at Government for creating a “situation of ethnic bias.”
Singh noted that the facts cannot be “washed away” when the evidence is there within the public system, that is, 16 of the 17 Permanent Secretaries within the system are Afro-Guyanese.
However, Minister Harmon, who has responsibility of Permanent Secretaries and their deputies within the public system, refuted that the situation was a deliberate one. In fact, Harmon, in response to Singh, told Guyana Times on Wednesday that the former AFC Executive got his facts wrong.
“These are appointments that are made by a Government and Mr Sase Singh should check the facts before he goes to publish because when he said there is only one person of a different race in that group, he needs to re-check it. You don’t just go by name and then determine that… If you check, you will find that the information is incorrect,” he said.
The Minister of State went on to point out too that all the current Permanent Secretaries were already there when the coalition took office just over two years.

“There is nobody that we brought into the system and put them as PSs. Many of them were PSs before in the previous Administration and we took them over… All we’ve done is move some of the PS from one Ministry to the next. So to say we have deliberately gone around looking for one race group to put them there, Mr Singh is being very factious,” he posited.
Moreover, Minister Harmon outlined that his Government is looking for a professional public service and therefore persons who have been serving in the public service for years are the ones they are promoting to the high position since they would have already gained the experience needed.
Furthermore, the Minister of State noted that from the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Sector, Government recognised the need to address certain issues such as public sector reforms. He added too that they have started training of public servants and at different levels too so as to improve the services to the public.
According to Singh’s letter, in which he supplied a list of the various PSs, this situation is an increased assault against the Guyanese people by the David Granger Administration.
He went on to cautioned in the letter that the social cohesion damage to this nation has to be repaired otherwise this breach will become unsealable – suggesting even that this might be deliberate.
Moreover, Singh took the opportunity to call out the AFC Ministers within the Administration – whom he referred to as so-called liberal democrats – for remaining mum on the situation.