“I have not found any reason to remove her”- President on calls for Minister Lawrence’s removal

Following the recent fire at the State’s Children’s Drop-in Centre at Hadfield St, Georgetown, there have been several calls for the removal of Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, there have been several calls for her removal. This is in addition to similar calls made prior to the 2015 Local Government Elections.

However, President David Granger expressed the view that these calls do not represent a substantial amount of persons.

During this week’s recording of the Public Interest, the Head of State said “I see a few people- I don’t ignore them, I think we should pay attention to what certain persons are saying but there is no tsunami of protests…I am aware that some people have made those statements, but how many people? 8-9? You don’t know. Sometimes you see these so-called petitions but they do not represent a substantial body of public opinion.”

However, he said, “if I were presented evidence that there was wrongdoing on her part, obviously I would want to consider it.”

The president noted that he has not found any reason to remove the Minister from that position as she has been doing her best in improving the delivery of social protection services to the public.

Speaking directly to Thursday, July 07, 2016 fire and the ongoing commission of inquiry into the incident, Mr. Granger said ‘heads will roll’ if anyone is found culpable.

“Naturally, if any persons are culpable of gross negligence or dereliction of duty, yes we will make a judgement of whether they are fit to hold those positions. If you equate that to the ‘rolling of heads’ yes” he said.

The aim he said is to prevent a recurrence.