The appearance of the heads of two state-owned corporations on the candidates’ lists of the incumbent PPP/C has led to calls for their resignations to avoid conflicts of interest.
Both Badrie Persaud, the Managing Director of GuyOil, and Raj Singh, the Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo, were revealed to be candidates for the PPP/C when its lists were presented to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) last week.
The head of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) Mahender Sharma, who is the son of former Justice For All Party leader CN Sharma, is also on the PPP/C national list.
Former General Manager at GAIBANK Dr. Kenrick Hunte, in a letter published in Tuesday’s edition of Stabroek News, said both Persaud and Singh should resign immediately.
“Public servants who are desirous of running for political office must resign their government post in an effort to avoid a conflict of interest. Such action precludes the possibility for the misuse of public funds/resources in partisan political campaigns and junkets, where one political party benefits at the expense of other political groups,” he wrote, while noting that PPP/C prime ministerial candidate Elisabeth Harper had recently resigned as Director General in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
But Persaud told Stabroek News yesterday that he sees no conflict of interest in his endorsement of the ruling party while heading a state-owned entity.
He said that prior to being contacted by Stabroek News, the thought had never crossed his mind that there would be any public perception that it was not appropriate for the head of a state corporation to endorse or appear on the PPP/C lists.
Persaud said he would need to seek further counsel to determine if indeed his name appearing on the national list of candidates while he is representing a state entity is problematic.
Singh told Stabroek News that any questions pertaining to him being on the PPP/C list needed to be taken up with the PPP/C itself. He declined to speak further on the issue.
This newspaper made numerous attempts to contact PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee but these efforts were unsuccessful.
Political analyst Christopher Ram, however, says Persaud and Singh are public servants in the service of the public and should resign, while noting that the Constitution is clear that “the public service is to be free from political influence.”
“I think GuyOil ought not to reinforce any perception with an association with the PPP. It employs people, I assume, of all political persuasions and backgrounds and it can hardly be helpful and conducive to a healthy work environment,” he added.
Ram charged that while the Constitution guarantees the integrity of the public service, the PPP has unfortunately conflated the party and the state. “The PPP has taken it all together to a different level,” Ram stated, while calling the new endorsements a further “descent into lawlessness.”
Ram pointed out that permanent secretaries for various ministries are also executive members of the PPP, which further demonstrated how the party has “destroyed the professionalism in the public service.”
He said that all persons were free to endorse political parties, but the conflict of interest for the men is present and as a result they should choose one or the other.
