CARICOM withdraws Dr. Naresh Singh’s appointment

Feb 21, 2013 News

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– cites grave concerns over Canadian probe

After days of speculation, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) yesterday confirmed that it has withdrawn its offer to Guyanese-born, Dr. Naresh Singh, to become the body’s Deputy Secretary-General.
Singh reportedly resigned last week after media stories surfaced that he was being investigated by Canadian authorities for being in a possible conflict of interest situation in the handling of a Cad$23M entrepreneur training fund for the region.
Yesterday, CARICOM’s Secretariat made it clear that Secretary-General, Irwin LaRocque, has taken steps to “repudiate” the offer.
CARICOM said that it made an offer to Dr. Singh for the post of Deputy Secretary-General consequent upon requisite checks.
“This candidate had been proposed by the Secretary-General in accordance with the recruitment process for Executive Management of the Secretariat. Subsequent to the offer and Dr. Singh’s acceptance of that offer, information came to light regarding certain allegations against Dr. Singh which had been the subject of a confidential investigation by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, which is an independent Agency of the Parliament of Canada.”
The statement from the Secretariat expressed grave concerns of the findings by both CARICOM and the Secretary-General.
The Deputy Secretary-General post is the second most powerful executive position in CARICOM, a regional trade and integration body which has its headquarters in Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara. The position was held by Lolita Applewhaite who retired this month.
Last week, it was revealed that the Canadian-based executive was being investigated.
There were immediate questions as to how thorough the background checks were by the Guyana government in this particular case when it gave its “no objection” to Singh being appointed to that position at CARICOM.

Minister Rodrigues-Birkett explained that the “no objection” was a formality and came following a request by Secretary General Irwin La Rocque. She said that Guyana was not involved in the nomination.
For the conflict of interest situation, the Canadian Government has reportedly since ordered a hold on payments for the $23.2M Caribbean Local Economic Development (CARILED) Programme of which Singh was the Programme Director.
Last August, the Ministry of Local Government here signed an agreement with Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) that would see the administrations in Regions Two, Three, Four and Six receiving training to deal with residents who are interested in establishing and expanding businesses.
At the event were Local Government’s Permanent Secretary, Collin Croal, Minister Ganga Persaud and Canadian Ambassador to Guyana, David Devine.
Managing the project was Singh and CARILED. But he reportedly resigned from his post at the FCM last week Monday, after the international media tried to reach him for an interview.
According to a CBC report from Canada, Singh was a former executive with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) who was at the centre of a recent whistleblower watchdog report. He reportedly left CIDA in the midst of an audit probe.
However, there are questions about how he was hired to manage the multi-million CARILED programme which was funded by CIDA, his former employer. This is the alleged conflict of interest that is now the subject of a probe.
Canada’s International Co-operation Minister, Julian Fantino, has since referred the case to the public sector integrity commissioner.
“It has come to my attention that a former CIDA employee may have been in a conflict of interest,” Fantino said in a press release on Thursday.
On Thursday, the FCM sent an email to CBC News confirming that Singh resigned from the FCM.
According to media reports on the issue, Singh sparked an investigation at CIDA after he allegedly used office resources such as fax machines and a government email address to conduct private business. The executive also allegedly recruited administrative staff to assist in the job, which essentially was consulting with the private sector on the same subject matter the individual worked on in government.
An investigation, which covered two years of records, confirmed the allegations. The executive reportedly left the agency while the investigations were underway.
Singh reportedly has an impressive background and was chosen as director of CARILED, earning C’dn$100,000 per year, plus significant travel allowances.
He was appointed to that position on February 1, 2012 and began a series of trips to the countries covered by the project, where in some cases he was received by ministers. Sometimes he was even accompanied by Canadian diplomats or officials from CIDA – the organization he had left a few months earlier.

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