The Alliance for Change (AFC) today rejected the claim that Dr. Rudy Jadoopat, the former head of the natural resources transparency body, was a member of the AFC.
In a statement, the party said that “Perusals of the AFC’s records, both local and overseas, show that Dr. Jadoopat was never a member of the party in Guyana or in the North American Chapter”.
It said that the Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat must inform the public of the government’s real reason in replacing Dr. Jadoopat at this critical juncture of the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s (GY-EITI) work. The government had claimed that Dr Jadoopat was a member of the AFC and this was how he had gotten the job.
“On the contrary, to the government assertions, Dr. Jadoopat is being replaced by a known PPP activist, Mr. Prem Misir, who has no previous knowledge or background in anti-corruption and transparency initiatives”, the AFC said.
The AFC said it is of the view that these false claims against Dr. Jadoopat are mere ‘red herrings’ which should be patently seen for what they are.
It said that members of the Multi-Stakeholder Group under GY-EITI and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) itself “ought to condemn this political interference by the Government and see this replacement as a dilution of the independence of GY-EITI”.
A check by this newspaper led to a 2016 post on the AFC’s website which advertised the visit of then Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo to New York from Jan 15 – 18, 2016. Dr Jadoopat was named as the organiser of one of Nagamootoo’s events.
The decision to replace Dr Jadoopat, who has been dealing with the EITI process for the last five years, with Dr Misir, who once served as a spokesman for the PPP/C government, has raised eyebrows.
Dr Jadoopat told Stabroek News that he believes that his firing stems from his refusal to be censured by the Minister. He added that GY-EITI is supposed to be an independent body but since assuming office Bharrat has been requiring every public missive or public engagement to be approved by him.
“There is no one who can point fingers at me and [the] quality of [my] work anywhere in the world and even now and I have been the EITI head for the past five years and there is no record of anything except the Minister is not happy with me being straightforward. I stick to the EITI standards and I cannot violate them as a professional so when the Minister or whoever tells me to do anything which is in violation of the standard I will not do it.
“He has given me instructions to do certain things and I refused because it was in violation of the standard and my job is to uphold the standard and that is what the government of Guyana committed to – uphold the EITI standard, embrace it and implement it – and my job is to make sure that we implement the EITI international standard as it is,” he informed.
