Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has said the PPP/C government hopes to benefit from the knowledge and experience of former Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon and former minister Dr Jennifer Westford.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Jagdeo said President Irfaan Ali’s government has not formally engaged either Luncheon or Westford.
“But Roger Luncheon is very cogent. He is weak, you know, physically, but if you listen to him, he has a huge institutional memory and he hasn’t lost a single ounce of his intellect. I would rank him above 20 of the APNU ministers combined and we must benefit from his experience. And we have no apology for him to share that experience,” Jagdeo explained.
He added that at the moment with no budget in place, the financial situation of government does not allow for much hiring to take place and added that hiring Westford and Luncheon as advisors would have to be Ali’s call after consideration.
Luncheon served in the Jagdeo government as Head of the Presidential Secretariat and was his chief spokesperson. Luncheon also served in a similar capacity under the Donald Ramotar-led PPP/C administration.
Westford, a former Minister of Public Service, served in both the administrations of Jagdeo and Ramotar.
When the previous government assumed office, Westford was faced with 24 charges of larceny by a public officer. It was alleged that she stole of over $600 million while in government.
She was freed of the charges in 2018 by Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman, who cited that they were bad in law. It was noted, too, that she was not a public officer.
