President David Granger on Friday expressed satisfaction with Minister of State Joseph Harmon’s conduct in China and said that their longstanding friendship did not cloud his views on the matter.
“Yes, I am satisfied that the conduct of the minister was above board and that the Cabinet and the public have been informed,” he said, while responding to a question asked during the recording of ‘The Public Interest,’ which was broadcast on Friday evening.
Harmon’s conduct in China came under public scrutiny following the publication of a photograph in the Kaieteur News last month with him posing with several representatives of the controversial logging company Baishanlin.
Weeks earlier, Harmon had personally directed officials from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) not to seize two luxury vehicles belonging to the company. The revenue body at the time was acting against the company due to a case of unpaid taxes.
Asked if he is concerned that Minister Harmon’s visit to China has tarnished the image of the government and left a lot of concerns about shadowy deals, President Granger said that he is “certainly convinced that the Minister of State was not involved in any shadowy deal.” He said that during his trip abroad, Harmon had taken certain initiatives and had asked that before he engaged the media that he engage the Cabinet.
Granger said the minister subsequently presented various statements to Cabinet; one concerning the GTT operation with NICIL and others concerning the circumstances under which he appeared in the photograph.
“Those reports were presented to Cabinet and Cabinet is satisfied and they were public,” he stressed.
In his written explanation to Cabinet, Harmon had said four companies, whose representatives signaled their intention to make significant investments in Guyana, were located in Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei and Heilongjiang Provinces. As a result, he said the Ambassador of China to Guyana, who was in the country at that time, made arrangements for him to meet officials of the companies. “In this regard, because of the significant distances involved and the limited time available on that trip, the Ambassador made arrangements for these companies to provide transportation, both air and land, for me to travel to their respective Head Offices,” he said.
He specifically referenced arrangements for a visit to Long Jiang Forest Industries Group, in Heilongjiang Province, on March 2.
“The Long Jiang Forest Industries Group is a state-owned company that had acquired 55 percent of the shares in [Baishanlin] and is intended to fully take over the company in 2016,” he added.
Harmon said that two officials from the Long Jiang Forest Industries Group, along with two officials from Baishanlin, accompanied him on the aircraft on the flight from Beijing to Heilongjiang Province to attend the meeting.
“The publication of a lone photograph, therefore, without seeking to investigate and report on its context was not the work of the Ministry of the Presidency. I wish to make no comment on the motivations for its publication,” the Ministry of Presidency had said in a statement which provided the details of Harmon’s explanation to Cabinet.
Harmon has also faced criticism for his appointment of businessman Brian Tiwarie as a business adviser. That appointment was later rescinded by the president.
Friendship
Observers have questioned whether the president’s longstanding friendship with Harmon prevented him from being objective and taking disciplinary action against him.
Granger on Friday defended himself, saying that the Cabinet makes decisions as a team and that power is not vested in a single person. “The Cabinet is a collegiate entity. We are individuals yes but decisions are taken collectively and I would say that in every instance…there are frank discussions and at the end of it there is consensus and that is how we proceed,” he added.
Making it clear that he is not a “dictator,” he said that there is no single instance in which something comes before Cabinet “that only one person speaks or only one person has the way.”
“I would say that regardless of my friendship with Mr. Harmon, we have a good team and it is the team spirit that carries the Cabinet through. We operate as a team,” he added.
