Jagdeo welcomes Harper’s rehiring; says Gov’t has a tendency of replacing professionals with “incompetent cronies”

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has welcomed the recent rehiring of Career diplomat and Former PPP Prime Ministerial candidate, Elisabeth Harper by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Jagdeo, responding to a question posed by the media at his party’s end of year press conference on Friday December 30, 2016 at Freedom House, said Mrs. Harper is duly qualified and is one of the best in the field, hence without hesitation the Opposition Leader endorsed the appointment.

The Opposition Leader said there needs to be more appointments of this nature, accusing the Government of firing competent persons and hiring those who are aligned to the APNU+AFC, even though they may not meet the criteria.

“I believe that competent persons should be in the Public Service regardless of their race or political affiliation, we have seen this Government go after people because of their political affiliation or race. We would like to see more of this because the trend over the year has been to decimate people because of their race or politics,” said Jagdeo.

On Friday last (December 30, 2016) Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge announced that Mrs. Harper would be rehired to assist the ministry in documentation and matters involving sovereignty, given her “unique skills.”

Jagdeo said he was happy for Mrs. Harper, since according to him Government has a tendency of “supplanting incompetent cronies” in the space of competent persons.