Stabroek News
April 12, 2001

PNC REFORM (PNC/R) leader Desmond Hoyte has accepted an invitation from President Bharrat Jagdeo for dialogue and has named his party's General Secretary, Oscar Clarke, to meet a representative of the president to discuss arrangements for their meeting.

President Jagdeo last week invited Hoyte to meet him to discuss ways of achieving their shared goals of building a prosperous Guyana.

Hoyte accepted the invitation in a letter he sent to President Jagdeo on Tuesday, in which he suggested that they each appoint a representative who would meet to work out the details. President Jagdeo yesterday confirmed receipt of Hoyte's response and it is expected that he would respond shortly given his stated willingness to meet Hoyte.

On March 30, in a broadcast aired on VCT Channel 28, Hoyte set out a number of subjects that should be topics for discussion between the PPP/Civic and PNC/R. Among them were the appointment of a career civil servant as head of the public service, the depoliticisation of the public service and the implementation of an agreed resuscitation plan for Linden which the two parties would monitor.

The PNC/R and the Guyana Public Service Union have been protesting President Jagdeo's appointment of Dr Roger Luncheon as head of the Presidential Secretariat. The head of the Presidential Secretariat, by convention, is regarded as the head of the Public Service. There is no such post as head of the Public Service mentioned in the Constitution or in the Public Service Rules. Since 1986 the post was joined to that of Secretary to the Cabinet, which is mentioned in the Constitution, to underscore its primacy.

However, President Jagdeo has indicated his willingness to discuss with Hoyte the creation of a new post of head of the Public Service. But he insists that he has a right to appoint Dr Luncheon, whom he describes as his chief of staff.