President David Granger travelled to Trinidad on Sunday for private business, according to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.
The media was only alerted to Granger being out of the country and Nagamootoo having been sworn in to act as the president at a press conference at the Public Buildings yesterday.
Since the new government took office in May, there have been several occasions where the president and the ministers have left the country without any information being circulated to the public.
When pressed on the issue, both Nagamootoo and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge, who was also at the press conference, were cagey about Granger’s trip.
It was later revealed that he left for Trinidad on Sunday on non-state business.
Nagamootoo told reporters that the president is out of the country and was scheduled to return yesterday. Pressed about where the president had gone and for what purpose, he said, “I am told that the president has left for Trinidad. He is in the Caribbean. That is what my information is.” He then directed further questions to Greenidge.
Greenidge, in addressing the issue, said that the president is in the region and he is not on formal business. Asked what that meant, he said the president is not on state business. “If the president goes to give a lecture on something, what would you call that? I would call it not state business…. well it is other than state business. It is an activity like that,” he added.
The press was later told that the Ministry of Presidency will clarify the issue.
Towards the end of the press conference, Nagamootoo said that to avoid speculation, he would say that the president left for Trinidad on a private business.
The opposition yesterday raised concerns about Nagamootoo being in the National Assembly for the consideration of the budget estimates when he was also performing the duties of president. Nagamootoo, however, later said in his defence that he is still the Prime Minister and leader of the government business in the National Assembly. “I am here as Prime Minister of Guyana and as leader of government business in the National Assembly, who has been assigned additional functions of the president. I am still the Prime Minister of Guyana and Brigadier General David Granger the president of Guyana. I am not here as acting president but as Prime Minister performing the functions of the office of president,” Nagamootoo said.
