Dual national ministers reassigned to top jobs

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 May 2019, 17:30 by Writer

The Ministry of the Presidency on Tuesday announced that the three dual-citizenship holders who resigned their ministerial posts have been given top jobs.

Mr. Carl Greenidge has been appointed Foreign Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for the Department of Frontiers and Territorial Integrity and the Department of Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Mr. Dominic Gaskin has been appointed Director of Manufacturing and Marketing within the Ministry of Business with responsibility for the enforcement of standards, providing assistance to small producers and access to markets, particularly Eastern Caribbean markets

Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine has been appointed Director of Public Service Training within the Ministry of the Presidency with responsibility for training standards at the Bertram Collins College of the Public Service, Guyana Defence Force Staff College and Guyana Police Force Staff College.

Greenidge, Gaskin and Roopnaraine are also British citizens.

From all appearances, the former ministers are generally in charge of their same portfolios, the only difference being they are not ministers or parliamentarians.

Already, Guyanese-American Joseph Harmon has been appointed Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency.

He has been replaced by Dawn Hastings. The new Public Service Minister is Tabita Sarabo-Halley; Hemraj Rajkumar is the new Minister of Business, and taking up the Foreign Ministry portfolio is Dr. Karen Cummings.

Guyana’s courts have ruled that dual citizenship holders cannot be political candidates or parliamentarians.