Govt. has competent Minister of Business. No need for Tiwarie as Business Advisor -President Granger

According to the President, "Mr. Tiwarie is not an appointee of the government and he is not performing any function and that is why the position was rescinded. He is not required to perform any function. We have a Minister of Business, and as far as I am concerned, that Minister is quite capable and quite competent".

Govt. has competent Minister of Business. No need for Tiwarie as Business Advisor   -President Granger

Expanding more on his decision to rescind the appointment of businessman and controversial contractor Brian Tiwarie as a Ministerial Advisor on Business Development, President David Granger on Thursday declared that he has a very competent Minister of Business and therefore the government does not have a need for Mr. Tiwarie as any Business Development Advisor.

During a recording of the weekly Public Interest tv show, the President said Tiwarie’s appointment was not a government appointment.

According to the President, “Mr. Tiwarie is not an appointee of the government and he is not performing any function and that is why the position was rescinded. He is not required to perform any function. We have a Minister of Business, and as far as I am concerned, that Minister is quite capable and quite competent”.

The appointment was made by Minister of State, Joe Harmon back in January. The President and the rest of the cabinet were unaware of the appointment until it was revealed in a Kaieteur News story on Sunday.  By Tuesday, the Ministry of the Presidency announced that the appointment had been rescinded.

“I personally rescinded Mr. Tiwarie’s appointment”, the President said, as he explained that the Minister of Business has never requested any help to deal with Government’s business agenda.

“We don’t have any ongoing relationship with Mr. Tiwarie and that is all I can say”, Mr. Granger explained during the interview.

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Brian Tiwarie

The Minister of State, Joe Harmon, has since returned from China and is expected to meet today with the President on the issue. He has attempted to defend his decision, telling the Kaieteur News that the appointment by him was “honourific”.

This morning, he dodged questions by reporters.  Harmon was accompanied to China by Brian Tiwarie.

President Granger said as far as he knows, Harmon would have been accompanied to China by an official of the Government’s Holding company, NICIL, which was responsible for the sale of the GT&T shares.

Just after the May 11, 2015 elections, Brian Tiwarie, who owns a large contracting company and mining company, positioned himself close to the government and even provided assistance to the clean up Georgetown efforts.

When it was in opposition, the People’s National Congress, which is the largest party in the coalition government, had accused Tiwarie of a number of corrupt transactions under the PPP government. He had often denied those claims.

Just recently he was named in the purchase and sale of acres of government land to a Chinese company under the PPP administration.

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