BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – The people of the Caribbean from Suriname and Guyana in the South to Jamaica, Haiti and The Bahamas in the North will know by the end of the week the name a new Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
CARICOM Chairman and St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas who was visiting Grenada on Sunday to address the annual Convention fo the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas said the CARICOM Bureau met in Barbados on Saturday to interview the five candidates for the position that became vacant following Sir Edwin Carrington’s decision to step down at the start of the year after 18 years on the job.
The three members of the Bureau – Dr. Douglas, Suriname President His Excellency Desi Bouterse and Grenada’s Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas – were joined by host Prime Minister of Barbados, the Hon. Freundel Stuart, to interview the candidates that include the present Assistant Secretary General, Trade and Economic Integration, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines diplomat Ellsworth John.
“The three leaders of the Bureau of the Conference of Heads, together with the Prime Minister of Barbados, completed the exercise of interviewing five Caribbean people for the distinguished post of Secretary General of CARICOM,” Dr. Douglas told reporters just before the rally in Hermitage, Grenada.
Dr. Douglas said he will inform his other regional colleagues during this week with the intent of completing the screening exercise and announcing the new CARICOM Secretary General by the middle of this week.
“Over the next few days as I make contact with our Caribbean leaders, we would be able to complete the exercise and by midweek hopefully of this week, we would have identified the new Secretary General of our CARICOM Community.”
The new secretary general is expected to lead the reform of the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat that the regional leaders at heir annual summit in St. Kitts earlier this month noted “ is the first in a series of initiatives mandated by the Heads of Government towards improving governance arrangements within the Community.
“The Review of the CARICOM Secretariat will be followed by a review of all Organizations’ and Institutions established within the Community,” the leaders said in their communiqué.
