Gov’t will ‘debunk’ opposition lies, work closer with Trump administration – Jagdeo

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said that the Irfaan Ali-led administration is keen to continue working alongside the United States of America (USA) and the incoming Donald Trump administration.

The Vice President, who is the General Secretary of the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), also emphasised that a key focus of the government will be to debunk lies continuously told to us authorities by opposition operatives.

“Every [US] mission that comes to Guyana, they have a standard mantra. That is, the PPP is racist, the PPP is corrupt, the PPP is incompetent, the PPP squanders oil money and the PPP doesn’t like the US (because) we are in bed with the Chinese.

“Of course, the facts are very different and we have been meeting with those officials to set the record straight,” Jagdeo said on Thursday at his weekly press conference.

Jagdeo opined that such notions are shared by detractors of the party and the government, including members of the opposition. He also said known social media critic, Rickford Burke has consistently fed US authorities with untrue information.

But he emphasised that the government will pushback against those untrue notions and intends to work closely with the Trump administration to set the record straight.

“We believe the USA is a very close partner of Guyana and therefore we have to work to build this partnership continuously,” he said, later adding, “We are looking forward to continue debunking all the lies, particularly with the new administration that will take office next January in the USA.”

Of particular note, Jagdeo said the government will engage the US administration on Burke’s modus operandi and transgressions including his alleged extortion of Guyanese.

Outside of expressing intentions to engage the US administration, Jagdeo highlighted some of the improvements that have been made locally to guarantee greater accountability and transparency in governance.

Those gains include improvements at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).