{"id":200915,"date":"2026-11-06T05:37:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T08:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/?p=200915&preview=true&preview_id=200915"},"modified":"2026-11-06T05:39:33","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T08:39:33","slug":"monorath-responds-to-possible-motion-of-no-confidence-ultimately-the-president-decides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/monorath-responds-to-possible-motion-of-no-confidence-ultimately-the-president-decides\/","title":{"rendered":"Monorath responds to possible motion of no confidence: \u201cUltimately, the president decides\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Minister Harish Monorath of Justice and Security has responded to reports that preparations were being made within the VHP to submit a motion of no confidence against him.<\/div>\n
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According to the minister, he was aware of such preparations, but in the end it remained limited to parliamentary questions. Monorath says he is not losing sleep over a possible motion, but believes that the ongoing criticism of him also damages the image of his ministry.<\/div>\n
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During an interview with ABC Actueel, Monorath said he is not distracted by calls for him to resign. He stressed that parliament has the right to submit a motion of no confidence, but that the president ultimately decides on the appointment and dismissal of ministers.<\/p>\n

“I see that in the end it remained only a question round. But I do know that preparations for it were made,” Monorath stated.<\/p>\n

The minister was responding to reports about a possible motion of no confidence that would be linked to his former involvement with the Telecommunicatie Autoriteit Suriname (TAS). VHP parliamentarian Mahinder Jogi has asked questions in De Nationale Assembl\u00e9e (Suriname’s parliament) about the legality of payments from TAS and the employment contract of former director Wendy Jap-A-Joe.<\/p>\n

Minister upset over criticism<\/h3>\n

Monorath acknowledges that the criticism affects him. According to him, an image is being created that his ministry is involved in unlawful acts, while he says important results are being achieved.<\/p>\n

“We are working hard at the Ministry of Justice and Security. And you can see that progress is being made,” he stated.<\/p>\n

The minister pointed out that his ministry operates with limited financial resources while at the same time trying to catch up on a backlog. According to him, insufficient account is taken of the efforts of his staff.<\/p>\n

He stressed that a motion of no confidence is a serious political instrument that can have consequences for the country’s reputation. In doing so, he referred to Suriname’s international obligations and the meeting of CARICOM Ministers of Justice and Security taking place in Paramaribo next week.<\/p>\n

“The world is watching,” he warned.<\/p>\n

Monorath further said that he is responsible for a ministry with approximately 6,800 employees. According to him, they too are affected when the ministry is continually linked to alleged irregularities.<\/p>\n

Monorath speaks of political witch-hunt<\/h3>\n

The minister directed his criticism mainly at VHP parliamentarians. He finds it remarkable that representatives of this party, with which his party ABOP governed together for five years, are now questioning his actions.<\/p>\n

“If you want to beat a dog, you will find a stick anywhere,” Monorath said at the start of the interview.<\/p>\n

According to him, there is a recurring pattern in which parliamentarians specifically target him and his ministry.<\/p>\n

He also referred to an earlier matter in which, after taking office as minister, he continued to receive compensation from the Deviezencommissie for several months. According to Monorath, the termination of that payment had not been processed administratively and he repaid the amount received.<\/p>\n

The minister also stated that VHP parliamentarian Mahinder Jogi had made requests to him outside parliament via WhatsApp concerning personnel matters within the police force. Monorath says he has messages that can prove this. That claim was not substantiated with documents during the interview.<\/p>\n

More than fifteen TAS employees paid for work at Brunswijk’s office<\/h3>\n

An important part of the criticism against Monorath concerns the deployment of staff from the Telecommunicatie Autoriteit Suriname at the office of then Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk.<\/p>\n

Monorath confirmed during the interview that more than fifteen TAS employees carried out work for the Office of the Vice President during the previous term of government.<\/p>\n

According to the minister, these were employees with expertise in legal affairs, ICT, finance and administrative support.<\/p>\n

“More than fifteen people from TAS were recruited on and off to do that,” he stated.<\/p>\n

The employees allegedly provided additional services outside their regular working hours. According to Monorath, work was sometimes carried out until ten or eleven o’clock in the evening to keep the office running.<\/p>\n

He stressed that the persons involved were paid for this work and that, in his view, this was not unlawful.<\/p>\n

When asked whether the payments came from TAS resources, he replied: “I think simply from the remuneration.”<\/p>\n

This left it unclear from which budget the compensation was actually paid, how much was involved and on which financial decisions the disbursements were based.<\/p>\n

Minister defends signing of Jap-A-Joe contract<\/h3>\n

The employment contract of former TAS director Wendy Jap-A-Joe was also discussed.<\/p>\n

Jogi previously asked questions about Monorath’s authority to sign this agreement in 2021 as the then chairman of the supervisory board. According to the parliamentarian, it must be investigated whether the legal requirements were observed.<\/p>\n

Monorath maintains that he was authorised to sign the agreement. According to him, there was a presidential resolution and a decision by the Raad van Ministers for this purpose.<\/p>\n

The minister also defended Jap-A-Joe’s salary. He stated that directors of various parastatal institutions receive comparable or higher salaries. According to him, society should gain insight into the remuneration of all directors at state-owned companies and parastatal institutions, so that a fair comparison can be made.<\/p>\n

The authority to sign the employment contract has since become part of a legal discussion. The court has also considered the statutory appointment procedure and Jap-A-Joe’s legal position in the case concerning the former TAS director.<\/p>\n

Minister points to results of his policy<\/h3>\n

Monorath believes that the discussion about TAS distracts attention from the work of his ministry.<\/p>\n

He referred to the installation of 45 judges, amendments to legislation on the death penalty and the preparation of various draft laws. He also mentioned his participation in the review of Suriname during the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva.<\/p>\n

According to him, Suriname accounted for developments in the field of human rights on that occasion.<\/p>\n

The minister stressed that he wants to continue focusing on the implementation of his policy and that criticism, in his view, must be based on concrete facts.<\/p>\n

Regarding the calls for his resignation, he maintained his position that parliament may use political instruments, but that the final decision on his position rests with the head of state.<\/p>\n

A motion of no confidence against Monorath has not yet been submitted. However, the parliamentary questions about his involvement with TAS and the payments to employees have not yet been fully answered.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Minister Monorath acknowledges preparations for a motion of no confidence, but stresses that the president decides on his position and points to results achieved despite criticism and limited resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":200521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_29234516172805655_1445375691985227":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1158244960706604":"","facebook_29234516172805655_108923581283702":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1309923202201307":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1093738170500407":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_29234516172805655_1309923202201307","service":"facebook","timestamp":1793954388,"status":"success"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16390],"tags":[22989,20739,24791],"class_list":["post-200915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-harish-monorath","tag-justice-and-security","tag-telecommunicatie-autoriteit-suriname-suriname-telecommunications-authority"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-02-at-11.47.01-1-1536x864-1-1.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200961,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200915\/revisions\/200961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}