Oscar Arnold Weighs In on Carla Barnett Developments  

And we also heard from Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oscar Arnold who is attending the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Saint Lucia. Arnold gave his thoughts on the developments regarding Secretary General Dr. Carla Barnett.

 

Oscar Arnold, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“As far as the development with the Secretary General, the Heads of States and Mission have agreed to a way forward. Trinidad and Tobago were making objections on the process that was used for the reappointment of Secretary General Barnett. So they were opposing and leading up to the meeting there were quite a bit of suspicion that it would be disruptive to the meeting. In the initial retreat held by the heads for about six or seven hours it was agreed upon a way forward. That way forward is that CARICOM will look to the CCJ to provide and advisory opinion on the reappointment of the Secretary General and during this period up until when that advisory opinion is received, the status quo will remain, meaning that Secretary General Barnett will remain in the post and if it goes beyond the current contract she has that status quo will be maintained until they receive the advisory position. At that point, the heads will sit down and meet again and go over the opinion when received.”

 

Arnold says that the heads in their realized that this is the best approach to bring the dispute to finality.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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