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Mar 03, 2017 News
-in keeping with audit recommendation
Days after making it clear that he was passionate about his job in the health sector, Permanent Secretary (PS), Trevor Thomas, was given marching orders by Government. Sharing the details of this development yesterday was
Minster of State, Joseph Harmon.
Harmon was at the time hosting this week’s Post Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency.
The disclosure was in fact prompted by a question posed to the Minister about an audit report which highlighted instances of mismanagement and financial irregularities levelled at the Permanent Secretary, among other indiscretions at the Public Health Ministry. In response, Harmon unapologetically said “his service was terminated as PS.”
According to the Minister of State, based on the report of the audit of the Ministry, certain courses of action were taken. He noted too that contained in the report was a recommendation that the PS be removed from that office and therefore from March 1, 2017 a decision in this regard became effective.
“There are several other consequential recommendations that have been made and the [Senior] Minister of Public Health [Ms. Volda Lawrence] had actually started taking action on some of them,” Minister Harmon related.
As part of her intervening efforts, Harmon said that “she [Minister Lawrence] has gone around to some of the units where procurement is taking place and has actually seen for herself what is happening, and we can expect some radical changes where those things are concerned.”
It is likely that Thomas will be afforded another appointment within the public sector, but Harmon claimed he was not in a position yesterday to address specifics in this regard. He however informed that the void left by Thomas’s termination will be filled by Deputy Permanent Secretary within the Public Health Ministry, Ms. Collette Adams, until a substantive PS is appointed.
But the Public Health Ministry is not likely to be the only Ministry to see such action. Harmon told media operatives yesterday, “In another few days you might see changes in many of the Government Ministries where Permanent Secretaries are concerned.”
Among Thomas’s last engagements as Permanent Secretary was his address to a gathering of health officials at the first Regional Health Officers and Programme Heads meeting on Tuesday at Regency Suites on Hadfield Street, Georgetown.
At that forum, Thomas told the health officials that their operation this year in their respective regions cannot be a mere continuation of what was done in 2016.
“We have to be passionate about what we do and I cannot overemphasise this. I am very passionate about my job; I am extremely passionate about it. I am so passionate about my job, more than even myself as an individual,” Thomas asserted.
As a result, Thomas added that “whatever affects the health system affects me as a person. I am very serious about this. My point is that when we take a position in the health sector we cannot just see it as just a job. The delivery of health care cannot be seen as just a job,” he insisted.
But Thomas, based on his following comment, might have been prepared for his inevitable termination. In what could be described as a cryptic remark on Tuesday, Thomas assured, “if I leave the Ministry of Health and I go to another Ministry, I will become passionate about where I am working…that’s me.”
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