Confused of using word recently (past tense or present perfect tense)

[Eris]

Dear Members,

Is this correct if I say

The ministry recently concluded discussion whether to continue with the policy of using English or revert to mother tongue in vernacular schools.

or

The ministry recently have concluded discussion whether to continue with the policy of using English or revert to mother tongue in vernacular schools.

[Mister Micawber]

.
These are OK:

The ministry recently concluded discussion
The ministry has/have recently concluded discussion
.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Cisco795]

Mister Micawber:

Greetings.

I wonder if the word "recently" would make any difference between the two tenses, in my understanding, if a specific period of time is used, then a perfect present should be used over a simple past tense which wouldn`t requiere any specific time and rather describes an action that has come to a full completion.

Please let me know whether my thinking is gramaticaly correct or incorrect.

Thanks in advance for your kidness.

God Bless you.
Cisco.
_________________
Please, always correct me if I have made any kind of mistakes in my posts.

[Mister Micawber]

.
Let's try it, Cisco. But do you mean point in time or period of time? Well, the first thing I notice is that we would then not normally use 'recently', which is a replacement for the specific time reference:

Point in time:

The ministry concluded discussion on January 8th.-- OK
The ministry has/have concluded discussion on January 8th.-- This one seems unnatural now.

Period of time:

The ministry concluded discussion during the week.-- OK
The ministry has/have concluded discussion during the week.-- This is possible if we are still in the same week.
.
.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Cisco795]

"The neighbors had already given a party_________.

a. recently.
b. the weekend before.
c. until we did.
d. in a long time.

This is a question out of a "Side by Side" English teaching program in which only "b" is the right answer, I had thought myself that even "a" was a correct choice as well and ended up with a wrong answer and I was explained that by having a period of time (not point in time) specified in the sentence as in "the weekend before" would be the signaling for us to use Present Perfect Tense (or Past in this example) as our correct choice.

Thanks a lot for your kind assistance, God Bless you.
Cisco.
_________________
Please, always correct me if I have made any kind of mistakes in my posts.

[Mister Micawber]

.
A is OK. 'Side by Side' is an awful textbook.
.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's