Govt scraps BK Tiwari’s advisorial appointment , amid mounting pressure

Last Updated on Tuesday, 29 March 2016, 17:16 by Denis Chabrol

Under intense criticisms from certain quarters, the Ministry of the Presidency announced  that Brian Tiwari’s appointment as Business Adviser to the government has been scrapped.

“The appointment of Mr. Brian Tiwari as Ministerial Advisor on Business Development has been rescinded,” the Ministry of the Presidency said in a statement.

The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), which is the major constituent in the governing coalition, had severely criticised Tiwari and his company for the quality of work that had been done several years ago and had observed that he had been still awarded contracts.

Tiwari was widely regarded as one of the ‘Bs’ that had encircled then President Bharrat Jagdeo and his People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC).

Political Scientist, Freddie Kissoon, reacting to government’s decision to rescind Tiwari’s appointment, said government was forced to respond to widespread criticisms. “I think it came about because of the reaction of society and it shows that if this society is not vigilant this government is capable of egregious behaviour like the last one,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

Tiwari’s name has been called in government-sponsored forensic audit reports that shows that he was engaged in certain deals involving lands that he had purchased from government and sold for hefty sums.  “I cannot believe that this government has done it but they have done it,” said Kissoon, a former University of Guyana Political Scientist and well-known harsh critic of the then People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) with which Tiwari had enjoyed close relations.

This is the second time in less than one month that the coalition has had to back-pedal on persons it has selected; the first being Winston Harding. A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) dissociated itself from Harding’s candidacy after the media had widely reported that he had been fingered in alleged sexual offences.