Nagamootoo stripped of all “line responsibilities”
President “reconfigures” Executive structure
…now reports to Min of Presidency Harmon
On Thursday, January 14, in his first address to the National Assembly in this year, which he had dubbed
![President David Granger](http://i1.wp.com/www.guyanatimesgy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Pres-David-Granger.jpg?zoom=4&resize=224%2C300)
President David Granger
“Year of Renaissance”, President David Granger announced a “reconfiguration” of his governing Executive structure, which saw the Office of the Prime Minister, headed by PM Moses Nagamootoo, subsumed into the Ministry of the Presidency, led by State Minister Joseph Harmon.
In a wide-ranging speech evidently patterned on the US President’s annual “State of the Union” message, rather than the traditional local single presidential opening of the five-year Parliament, President Granger stated flatly, “The Ministry of the Presidency has been reconfigured to combine the Offices of the President, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ministers of State, Citizenship and Social Cohesion. This combination enhances governance and, especially through the Office of the Prime Minister, manages the Government’s business and legislative agenda in the National Assembly.”
The “Ministry of the Presidency” was an organisational innovation announced at the very start of the new Administration and at first was thought to have replaced the position of “Secretary to the Cabinet” in the preceding Administrations. The last incumbent in that position was Dr Roger Luncheon, who served as the spokesperson for the Cabinet on decisions reached.
In the first seven months of the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC)
![Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo](http://i0.wp.com/www.guyanatimesgy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Prime-Minister-Moses-Nagamootoo.jpg?zoom=4&resize=215%2C300)
Prime Minister
Moses Nagamootoo
Government, the retired Lieutenant Colonel Harmon was soon seen to be deploying a wide range of powers that made him the de-facto second in command after the Executive President, rather than as was traditional, the Prime Minister. Nagamootoo of the AFC had been appointed as Prime Minister as part of the coalition-sealing Cummingsburg Accord.
Traditionally, the Prime Minister was the leader of Government business in the National Assembly, and was also given a substantive and substantial line Ministry. The long-serving People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) PM Samuel Hinds, for instance, had been in charge of Energy. In the new “reconfiguration”, the President explained, Nagamootoo would now be sharing in leading the Government’s bills in the National Assembly with the other Ministries coming under the umbrella of the Ministry of the Presidency.
The President went on to explicitly describe the powers and the remit of the Ministers of Social Cohesion and Citizenship within the Ministry of the Presidency, but made no mention of any additional duties for Nagamootoo as Prime Minister. Earlier, it had been reported that Nagamootoo had finally been allocated the “governance” portfolio from Raphael Trotman in addition to overseeing the State media, but this was evidently not so.
In the present instance, however, the powers of the Prime Minister had been explicitly negotiated when the
![State Minister Joseph Harmon](http://i1.wp.com/www.guyanatimesgy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/MINISTER-OF-STATE-JOSEPH-HARMON.jpg?zoom=4&resize=215%2C300)
State Minister Joseph Harmon