Ex-corporation worker complains to Ombudsman of injustice

A former checker at the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation has written to the Ombudsman alleging he was fired and deemed mentally ill after he gave evidence against a senior employee at the corporation.

In a complaint to the office of the Ombudsman last week, Edison Rambarran is claiming the senior employee at the corporation has exercised practices which amounts to an injustice and maladministration.

He wants the ombudsman to investigate his claims and make recommendations which include the removal of the senior employee from office.

In his complaint, Rambarran’s attorney Richard Jagessar said in 2019, an incident took place at the corporation which led to an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Unit of the police service. Jagessar said his client was asked to be a witness.

Jagessar said it was this that led to Rambarran being deemed unfit to work and mentally ill.

“This status now affects my client’s evidence…. It is believed this was the intent of the actions all along; an orchestrated maneuver to make my client’s evidence at the anti-corruption division unusable.

“The manner in which this maneuver was executed amounts to maladministration,” Jagessar said.

The attorney claimed that after his client assisted the police, Rambarran began receiving threats and because of this, he applied for a transfer to another corporation, but it was refused.

Jagessar said there was another worker at the other corporation who was willing to switch, the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government said it had no objection to the transfer once both chief executive officers agreed, yet Rambarran was still denied.

“This by itself is a form of victimisation because there was no reason to reasonably deny a willful request to transfer an employee.”

On February 18, Rambarran was asked to attend a mandatory medical evaluation at the St Ann’s Hospital, was seen by two nurses, but in May, he was told he was mentally ill and unfit to work and was fired.

Jagessar maintained it was an orchestrated attempt to strike out his testimony in the anti-corruption investigation by deeming him unfit for work and mentally ill.

He said Rambarran has received a certificate of fitness from the Eastern Regional Health Authority, also in May.