Dear Editor,
Given that the PPP/C has lost the 2015 elections, Dr Raj Singh, the Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo, and Mr Badrie Persaud, the Managing Director of GuyOil, must resign their current posts, as their next jobs are more than likely to be opposition parliamentarians. The reason for the resignation is that, having been included on the PPP/C 2015 electoral list as candidates, they cannot simultaneously wear two different hats: one as national law-makers with parliamentary oversight responsibilities; and second, as chief executive officers of government owned businesses. This is the likely conflict of interest argument identified in the SN article of April 15 2015, captioned, ‘Calls made for GuySuCo, GuyOil heads to go.’
For example, Dr Singh reports to work on Monday morning at GuySuCo as the CEO, where he has day-to-day executive authority in the government owned business. In the afternoon he reports to Parliament as a parliamentarian on the opposition benches. Now here is the conundrum: Dr Singh, CEO, will be reporting to the Board of Directors appointed by the Minister of Agriculture, the subject Minister for GuySuCo. In Parliament, Dr Singh, the parliamentarian, will be authorized to question the Minister of Agriculture who has a reporting responsibility to Parliament for GuySuCo. Quite obviously, Dr Singh cannot be the CEO of a government owned business and at the same time be a parliamentary opposition politician, for he would have lost his independence from the time he accepted the call to be on the PPP/C electoral list. The same argument goes for Mr Persaud. Therefore, Dr Singh and Mr Persaud must resign from the CEO jobs and with haste report to former President Ramotar for their new posts in a no conflict of interest environment.
Yours faithfully,
C Kenrick Hunte
