Stop hiring until audit over

FARLEY Augustine, representative for Parlatuvier, Speyside, L’ Anse Fourmi, is calling for transparency in a Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) payroll and human resource (HR) audit.

Speaking at the Progressive Democratic Patriots weekly press briefing last Thursday at the minority office, uptown Scarborough, Augustine asked why the TRHA was advertising a position in the HR department when an audit was in progress and staff in the HR department were suspended.

“How it is we are auditing HR and simultaneously advertising for a position? All hiring must be paused while that auditing exercise is taking place,” Augustine said.

A release from the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development on March 20 said an independent review had become necessary to manage the TRHA’s expenditure in a more efficient manner.

It said, “To ensure the high level of independence required for the review process, some members of staff in the Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology Departments have been sent on administrative leave with full pay and benefit.... this is not a punitive action but an administrative one that is necessary to ensure the independence of the payroll review process.”

Augustine said the current situation has left him disturbed and upset and called on the Health, Wellness and Family Development Secretary Dr Agatha Carrington or members of Executive Council to give clarity on the matter.

He said, “Tobagonians need to know the exact number of persons that were sent on leave, how long they expect the exercise to take place, who are the persons doing the auditing, how much we are paying them to do this auditing exercise and what are the outcomes they hope to achieve subsequently.”

Augustine said it should concern all Tobagonians that hiring was taking place before the auditing was finished and the findings reported. “In the meantime, no hiring should be done because if they have sent your HR administrators home pending an audit, then the question is who is doing the hiring? We want to ensure the public who are hired are able to do their jobs fairly," he said.

Newsday Tobago sent an email to the communications department at the health division with questions on the advertisement and interview of new staff at the TRHA during an ongoing audit but up to Friday 4pm, no response was received.