Director of Sports Christopher Jones was today relieved of his position and sent on his annual leave but the APNU+AFC candidate says that once he receives the benefits that come with the termination of contract, he will have no difficulties with the termination but if not he would have to fight it
Jones told Stabroek News that he received the letter earlier today and it was headed ‘Termination of Contract’ and “essentially sending me off on leave as of today August 10th to September 13th”.
Jones said he has a three-year contract which expires in 2023 and while he admitted that his contract would have been renewed just after the March 2nd general election, he said that March was the date the contract expired and would have been up for renewal whether there was an election or not. He would have made the application to have his contract renewed three months prior and as such according to him it has nothing to do with elections but the cycle when his contract came to an end.
Jones, who for years has been a member of the PNCR and had served in the National Assembly from 2011 to 2015, was appointed Director of Sports shortly after the APNU+AFC ascended to power in May 2015 and in recent months has been on the coalition’s media platforms presenting its case during the five-month elections impasse.
Asked if he believes he should have resigned from the position given that he has been a candidate for the former government, Jones said he does not consider himself a political appointee and as such does not fall into the same category as a government Minister or Member of Parliament.
“Essentially my contract is with the Government of Guyana not to a political party so if a political party is out of power that has nothing to do with me in terms of the contract and the contractual obligations with the Government. So to ask me to resign I don’t see the reason, if it was a case of dereliction of duties or something…or something to that effect and you ask to resign then I could have understood that,” Jones said.
He said there was nothing of that sort and he was “just asked to resign out of the blues”. And while “everybody knows I am politically active and I am on the list of the APNU+AFC”, Jones said just by virtue of being on a list does not make a person a political appointee.
On Friday, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira had said that political appointees had one week to resign or they would be terminated beginning today.
