Minister of State Joseph Harmon will today provide a written account of his controversial appointment of businessman Brian Tiwarie as a business advisor, according to President David Granger who disclosed yesterday that Harmon’s private jet trips in China were paid for by the Chinese government.
The President provided no explanation for the presence of Chinese logging company Baishanlin’s executives onboard the aircraft and while he said that Harmon was there on business for state holding company NICIL, also disclosed that the Minister travelled to several cities in China.
The 11-month old Granger administration has been under pressure in recent weeks to provide answers on a number of controversial decisions including Harmon’s appointment of Tiwarie as a ministerial advisor on business development. The appointment was made in January apparently without the knowledge of Granger and other members of the administration and a day after the information was published in the press last month, Granger rescinded the appointment saying that the businessman’s services were not needed. Both Harmon and Tiwarie were in China at the time.
Yesterday, Granger told reporters that Harmon made an oral report to Cabinet on Tiwarie’s appointment and he is to prepare a written statement.
“We have a commitment. He has prepared a statement which was delivered orally to Cabinet and that will be issued in writing tomorrow (today),” Granger told reporters shortly after the five members of the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy took their oath of office at the Ministry of the Presidency. Despite an outcry, Harmon has remained mum on the allegations surrounding him but he has been defended by Granger. Harmon has promised to hold a press conference and also to issue a statement but is yet to do so and recently indicated that he had nothing to say.
Harmon has also faced accusations of interfering with a Guyana Revenue Authority investigation of tax evasion by Baishanlin. The claim is that officials were preparing to execute the seizure of two luxury vehicles when Harmon contacted them instructing that the vehicles not be removed and that the company be left alone. Days passed, before the vehicles were eventually seized.
Pressed yesterday on the China trip and its funding, Granger said it was a NICIL trip. “It was NICIL. That is my understanding that it was NICIL. He went on a trip with Miss Seepersaud, the (NICIL) lawyer. The presence of other persons there had nothing to do with the Government of Guyana,” he asserted. Quizzed on whether NICIL funded the trip, Granger responded, “I know that he went to the People’s Republic of China on the business of NICIL. I saw the Cabinet decision.”
No evidence has yet been provided by the government as to the funding for the trip.
In terms of whether Harmon had explained a photograph published in the Kaieteur News which showed himself and several Baishanlin officials on a plane, Granger responded in the affirmative.
“Yes. He has explained that to the Cabinet,” he said adding that Harmon’s explanation was that the “Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China was in China at the time. He (Harmon) had to go to about three or four different cities and the ambassador arranged the executive transport because of the distance between the cities and the amount of time he had at his disposal so it was arranged by the Chinese government to enable him to travel to different cities to conduct the business he was there to conduct.”
Granger did not explain the presence of the Baishanlin executives on the aircraft nor did he elaborate on why Harmon had to visit several different cities.
The Ministry of the Presidency in a statement on April 1, had said that Harmon’s trip to China was for the purpose of engaging in discussions with regard to the payment of the US$5 million balance owed to the government for the purchase of 20% of phone company GT&T shares by Chinese company, Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group from NICIL in 2012. This deal was entered into by the previous administration but only US$25 million of the agreed US$30 million was paid. The statement had said that in-house legal counsel at NICIL Natalia Seepersaud accompanied Harmon.
According to the statement, upon his return, Harmon reported that the investigations and enquiries that were conducted by the Guyanese delegation were successful. The team’s report was expected to be submitted to NICIL’s Board of Directors for deliberations, after which, a full statement on the matter will be issued, the statement has said.
Harmon’s controversial actions have drawn criticism and The Transparency Institute of Guyana has gone as far as to label his actions as corrupt.
APNU’s coalition partner the AFC has also spoken out saying that the concentration of various powers in Harmon was the key reason for the difficulties that have flared up around the government.
The party has called for his powers to be pared and had said that it would raise the matter at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. Granger yesterday said that Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting was an extraordinary one and was not the statutory cabinet meeting. He said it was convened to discuss “specific matters” which had been deferred from previous cabinet meetings. He did not elaborate on the specific matters. “So it was not a regular cabinet meeting,” he said. Stabroek News understands that the matter was briefly raised at Tuesday’s Cabinet session and put down for further attention.
Meantime, Tiwarie has since said that he was appointed as a personal advisor to Harmon and not to the government, and while claiming that he was the subject of a political vendetta, criticised Granger for acting “impulsively” in rescinding the appointment.
