Dr Naresh Singh does not believe that he should hold off on taking up the appointment as the new Caricom Deputy Secretary-General, saying enough time is available to sufficiently probe allegations that he was in a conflict of interest situation at his previous job.
“There is enough time between now and the proposed time of taking up office for adequate investigations to be completed,” Singh told Stabroek News.
Caricom has not yet announced a replacement for former deputy secretary-general Lolita Applewhaite, but Singh on Saturday announced that he was appointed by the 15-nation Caribbean Commu-nity while he also denied the allegations against him.
He explained that the reason for his notifying the public through a statement was to explain why he left his job at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) but noted the protocol requirement. “My only reason for mentioning this was to explain my reason for leaving my current job, since false and malicious reasons were being presented in the press. In retrospect, I could have used more general language without reference to Caricom. But the press had already been making a lot of references to the Caricom position and that compounded the need to make some reference. I do appreciate the protocol requirements to which you refer,” he said when asked about the appropriateness of him announcing his appointment in the absence of any official word from Caricom.
Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said last Saturday that it is now up to Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Rocque to dig for details about the alleged conflict of interest and advise Guyana accordingly.
“The SG [Secretary General] has to do his work. Now in the light of this new revelation he will have to advise us. The government did not nominate Dr Singh; it was the SG who did. It’s a different thing, so we will wait to hear what he says,” she said.
The conflict of interest allegation against Singh stems from to a watchdog report on the CIDA and Singh’s subsequent departure from the agency and employment at a Caribbean project, also funded by CIDA. Canada’s Over-seas Cooperation Minister Julian Fantino has referred the matter to the public sector integrity commissioner. After this decision was taken, Fantino announced that further funding for the project would be suspended.
Canada’s public integrity commissioner Mario Dion said the investigation in relation to Singh began after a complaint filed in 2010 accused him of using office resources such as fax machines and a government email address to conduct private business. He was also accused of recruiting administrative staff to assist in the job, which essentially was consulting to the private sector on the same subject matter the individual worked on for government.
On Monday last, Singh resigned from his new position as director of the Caribbean Local Economic Development (CARILED), a Cdn$23.2 million Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) programme funded by CIDA and which was headquartered in Trinidad and was executing projects in Guyana and other Caribbean countries.
In his statement on Saturday, Singh referred to his dismay at the “unproven allegations” in the media, and said he left CIDA to continue his work in international development in the Carib-bean, under the auspices of the FCM. He expressed himself mystified by the suggestion that he may have been in a conflict of interest situation while at FCM.
He went on to say, “The short consulting contracts in international development with the United Nations undertaken during my private time while employed at CIDA were permitted by CIDA rules at the time, as long as I received advance clearance.” However, he said he failed to obtain clearance for two or three consultancies lasting two or three days, for which he accepted responsibility.
“In execution of my consultancies I received a very small number of isolated emails and conference calls during business hours which were inappropriate. At no time did I intentionally break the rules or attempt to enrich myself at the expense of the Canadian taxpayer,” he also said.
