The Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce is calling on President David Granger to ask Minister of Health, Dr George Norton to resign over the controversial contract for a pharmaceutical bond which saw the minister misleading Parliament.
In a statement on Friday, the CCCC said it viewed with great concern and dismay that the minister lied in Parliament during questioning by the opposition on the deal.
“…we cannot give him the benefit of the doubt that it was his staff, so we would have to conclude that he must have known about this transaction from the start”, the CCCC said.
In a statement signed by its Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Raffik, the CCCC also criticised Norton for initially presenting parliament with an unsigned copy of the contract.
“This present government campaigned strongly (against) corruption and promised to be different from their predecessors and here is another attempt at closing ranks and protecting one of their own”, it charged. It also accused the leader of the AFC and Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan of hypocrisy on the issue.
“… the honourable minister is being extremely hypocritical as he would have been the first to vehemently criticize this deal in the previous parliament and not tendering a set of excuses for his colleague as he did and in doing so manifesting an extremely disappointing position by the AFC”, the CCCC said.
It added “This is inexcusable and is not the change promised”.
