Richard Lord

For­mer head of the pub­lic ser­vice Regi­nald Du­mas says there is need for the post of In­spec­tor of Mis­sions to be re­in­stat­ed. Du­mas said that yes­ter­day when ques­tioned about the dis­missal of eight em­ploy­ees of the T&T Con­sulate in New York last month.

He said there re­mained pro­vi­sions for such a post. He said this lat­est de­vel­op­ment in New York high­lights the need for some­one to be ap­point­ed to the po­si­tion. He said an In­spec­tor of Mis­sions would be able to vis­it the New York Con­sulate and in­ter­view staff, as well as the head of mis­sion, and get the facts with a view to an ap­pro­pri­ate res­o­lu­tion of the mat­ter.

He said it was now time to ap­point some­one to that po­si­tion. Eight work­ers were fired with im­me­di­ate ef­fect last month, af­ter be­ing asked to write an ex­am they claim they were not pre­pared for. The ex­am was au­tho­rised by of­fi­cials at the con­sulate. Du­mas said he was sur­prised by that de­vel­op­ment, as in his en­tire ca­reer in the pub­lic ser­vice he had nev­er heard of such an ex­am. He said sev­er­al ques­tions must be an­swered:

• Who set the ex­am and for what pur­pose?

• What was its cri­te­ria?

• Who marked the pa­pers?

• Was it done on the au­thor­i­ty of the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs?

Du­mas said the con­di­tions of ser­vice of the work­ers was a crit­i­cal fac­tor in this mat­ter. He said it was al­so im­por­tant to find out if the work­ers' con­di­tions of ser­vice had changed and if that was the case, were the em­ploy­ees in­formed of this. He want­ed to know if the prin­ci­ple of eq­ui­ty was ob­served in the en­tire process. He al­so want­ed to know if the ex­am came like a thief in the night or were the work­ers aware of it.