President David Granger yesterday explained that he appointed former Minister of State Joseph Harmon as Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency as he needed help to manage the ministry, given its “huge” responsibilities.
While Granger stopped short of saying how exactly this will be done, Harmon subsequently told reporters that for the time being he will continue hosting post-Cabinet press briefings and assured that when his other duties are made clear, this information will be publicised.
Days after Harmon’s resignation as Minister of State and as a parliamentarian took effect, the Department of Public Information (DPI) announced the new appointment in a press release. Harmon was one of four government ministers who were forced to resign due to their having dual citizenship, which makes them ineligible to serve as parliamentarians under the constitution.
Observers have questioned the rationale behind the appointment given that Minister Dawn Hastings-Williams was promoted to succeed Harmon as State Minister.
Asked about Harmon’s functions as Director-General shortly after the swearing in ceremony for new ministers ended yesterday, Granger said that the former minister would “continue to assist me in the administration of the Ministry of the Presidency.”
Stressing that all ministers are his “assistants,” Granger said Harmon, in particular, will have a non-ministerial role in helping to manage the Ministry of the Presidency. “As you know, the ministry has several large departments. I am responsible for defence. I am responsible for environment. I am responsible for energy and there are several other commissions. In addition to that, there are three large departments—the Department of the Public Service, the Department of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Department of Energy. These are all very huge administrative responsibilities and I needed assistance in helping me to manage the ministry,” he explained.
Subsequently, Harmon said one of his functions will be the holding of the post-Cabinet press briefing. He made this disclosure during one such briefing, which was held almost two hours after the president addressed the matter with the media.
Asked to explain how his present position differs from that of the Minister of State portfolio, Harmon noted the changes that have taken place as a result of him and three other senior ministers demitting office at the same time. Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, who was Public Service Minister, Dominic Gaskin, who was Business Minister and Carl Greenidge, who was Foreign Affairs Minister, were also forced to resign due to having dual citizenship. “What that required, therefore, was some amount of rebalancing in the government and so changes had to be made. Junior ministers were promoted, some persons were reassigned and all of these things are taking place within a short space of time. So, you would appreciate that this rebalancing takes time and also the actual designation of some former ministers and the duties which they perform are still works in progress,” he said.
He added that one specific responsibility he has been given is continuing to host the post-Cabinet press briefing and he noted that the president has invited him to sit in the Cabinet meetings so that “I can brief the nation on the things that are being dealt with in the Cabinet.”
Harmon would later assure that the government Members of Parliament have only Guyanese citizenship. “We are satisfied that the persons who are on the government side sitting as Members of Parliament are in fact Guyanese citizens and they do no hold citizenship for any other country,” he said.
The DPI had reported that Harmon, during a community meeting at the New Silver City Secondary School earlier this week, announced that he was in the process of renouncing his American citizenship.
“I wrote to [the president] and said I have commenced the process of renunciation of US citizenship and, therefore, by the time we come around to the next elections, I will go back into the Parliament,” he explained, before adding that in the interim he has resigned as a parliamentarian in keeping with a ruling of the Court.
He stressed that his resignation did not express a preference for US citizenship over his seat in Parliament, while explaining that the process of renouncing citizenship requires a certain number of applications and is done over a period of time. Government had previously said that Roopnaraine and Greenidge, both British citizens, would also be renouncing their foreign nationality. Gaskin was born in the United Kingdom.
In the opposition benches, there were three dual citizen parliamentarians: Gail Teixeira, who has Canadian citizenship, and Odinga Lumumba and Adrian Anamayah, who have Americans citizenship. They have also resigned from the National Assembly.
