Deputy Chief Sec concerned over vacant Chief Administrator's office

THA Deputy Chief Secretary and Secretary of Health, Wellness and Social Protection Dr Faith BYisrael has described the assembly's lacking a chief administrator for close to a month as “cause for concern.”

BYisrael addressed the issue on the Tobago Updates morning show on Monday.

“We’re getting very, very close to a month that we’ve not had a chief administrator at the THA, and this is something that needs to be highlighted and it is something that is really a cause for concern.”

She explained: “The chief administrator according to the Tobago House of Assembly Act is the most senior accounting officer in the THA. The other administrators, in essence, who are accounting officers in the divisions, report to the chief administrator.

"The chief administrator is also responsible for whenever there are firearm users' licence requests happening, whether there are HR issues that need to be done above a certain range...there are significant other issues that happen within the Tobago space (that) require the signature of the chief administrator.”

She said the situation made her wonder if it was "an ambush...what seems to be a larger plot almost to destabilise the current THA.”

She said she was very unclear as to what was the keep back, adding that according to section 71 of the THA Act, the Prime Minister is supposed to advise the Public Service Commission that a chief administrator needs to be appointed.

“The critical part, though, is that that advice to the Public Service Commission must come after consultation with the Chief Secretary. That is a normal thing, this is not a new thing; that is what has happened in the Tobago space for as far back as we’ve had the THA.”

She said as far as she is aware, former chief administrator Ethlyn John retired on May 17 and as required, she wrote to the service commission a month earlier sending a reminder.

She said on May 15, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine had already written to Dr Rowley.

“On May 22, at about 5 pm, after back and forth, the Chief Secretary and the Prime Minister actually met at his residence in Tobago to speak about this and other matters. They sat, they had very cordial discussions and there was an agreement at that point – the Prime Minister agreed, yes, I simply need to write to my permanent secretary, letting her know that she needs to write to the service commission and have this situation dealt with.”

She said again on May 29, the Augustine once again communicated with Rowley, reminding him of the situation and asking for an update.

“At that point, the Prime Minister gave the commitment that he would actually do what is necessary and to do that on May 31, because the day after that, the 30th, was a holiday.”

She said Augustine again communicated with Rowley on June 5, which had since prompted him to send a pre-action protocol letter to the commission informing it of the situation.