Vice President J. Uduch Senior refuted President Surangel Whipps Jr. ‘s list of concerns against the State Ministry, instead blaming his presidential staff for poor coordination with the ministry.
Vice President and State Minister Senior was responding to President Whipps July 5 memorandum expressing disappointment on the ministry’s performance.
She also called out the president for preferring to write the memo instead of choosing to iron out the issues with her in person.
“I respectfully request that in the next three and a half years of your administration we meet to discuss these types of issues in person instead of resorting to written memorandums,” VP Senior said.
In her response, Senior also urged the president to exercise patience as the government, including her ministry embarked on implementing his realignment orders.
VP Senior stopped short of blaming the president for the disorganization in the executive branch due to the realignment.
“Mr. President, we deeply respect you as the Head of the Executive Branch and through the different ministries in the executive branch, we serve the people of the Republic of Palau. That means we are all in one team, under your command as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and we should support each other by being good team players,” she said.
In a July 5 memorandum of the president to VP Senior, said the letter serves “to respectfully convey several concerns of the Office of the President in several areas.”
President Whipps in the memorandum said that the MOS, which the Vice President also heads as minister, should take corrective measures to remedy the concerns raised by his office.
Whipps said the MOS has been providing his office “incomplete or vague” information regarding Palau’s bilateral and multilateral relations.”
But the Vice President countered the president saying the protocols could have been done properly, if his presidential staff, which Senior called OOPS (Office of the President Staffs), would allow the ministry staff to handle protocols.
The VP added that there is also a lack of a designated person in the President’s office that can coordinate with the MOS on protocol matters.
“It is often difficult to coordinate efforts with the OOPS. It would be helpful if you would designate a point of contact in your office with whom we can communicate on protocol,” Senior said.
She added that MOS have been providing him timely communications, if the information has not reached him in a timely manner, Senior said it could have been OOPS which have not done their job of informing him quickly.
Senior said the ministry also did not fail to provide him information on the Taiwan trip but rather was blocked by the OOPS from doing its work.
The VP also belied the president’s statement that the ministry did not provide him accurate information in preparation for the PALM meeting.
As for the EU Missions lease agreement, VP said the president was “given the wrong information” by his OOPS about the status of the issue.
“The outstanding payments are called arrears because we did not pay the rent when it was due but our obligation to pay rent remains,” she said.
She said under the EU mission agreement, Palau would still have to pay the rental until September 2021 even though the lease has already been terminated.
The vice president said the ministry has submitted a timely request for the termination of the agreement.
She said that the issues should have been discussed and resolved by president’s staff and respective directors and chiefs in the ministry rather than through a memo to herself.
“In my humble opinion, it was not necessary for you as the president of the Republic of Palau to write a memorandum of concerns to me as the Vice President of the Republic of Palau given that we have been in office less than six months.”