President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that he had indicated to the United Nations (UN) that he no longer had confidence in the UN Resident Representative here, Jan Sand Sorenson.
Sorenson has been here just over a year and observers say that the expression of no confidence is just as if the government had asked for his recall.
Sources say that instructions had been issued by certain government officials that there should be no engagement with Sorenson.
Jagdeo told reporters yesterday at an Office of the President press conference that an official from the Administrator's Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had visited Guyana and that he "had asked sometime ago that it be conveyed to him (the UNDP Administrator) that I had lost confidence in the head of the UNDP office here and that we had agreed that there be no big statement on the issue."
Pressed for the reasons for his loss of confidence, Jagdeo said, "It has to do mainly with …(him) dealing in matters that I don't think were part of his remit. This is all I will say on this matter."
Asked if he knew whether Sorenson had been recalled, Jagdeo replied that if he had been recalled then the UN probably took that decision. Stabroek News understands that the UN has so far taken no such decision.
Sorenson could not be reached by Stabroek News for a comment yesterday but his office said that he would be interested in knowing exactly what the President had said at the press conference.
Stabroek News understands that the President was peeved about the statement by the UNDP office here in which it had advised that there should be consultation with all the stakeholders in the naming of a commission of inquiry into the death squad allegations and its terms of reference.
Shortly after this statement, Jagdeo announced the establishment of a presidential commission and with narrow terms of reference. The President's action deepened the rift with the parliamentary opposition.
The terms of reference still remain a sore point despite the inclusion of former Chancellor of the Judiciary and Attorney-General in the PNCR administration, Keith Massiah, in place of Ivan Crandon, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, on the panel.