Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe says re­ports that Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Roshan Paras­ram was sent on leave are in­cor­rect.

“My in­for­ma­tion is that the Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Roshan Paras­ram had ac­cu­mu­lat­ed a cer­tain amount of leave, and he had ap­plied for the leave and the nor­mal process the leave was grant­ed,” he said yes­ter­day.

Bo­doe added that he had no con­trol over the post of Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer.

“Dr Paras­ram as Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer is in a pub­lic ser­vice po­si­tion and as such it is with­in the realm of the pub­lic ser­vice. He can­not be sent on leave, so from my un­der­stand­ing the process has been dealt with from the pub­lic ser­vice with­in the re­mit of the pub­lic ser­vice.”

Com­ment­ing on claims that Paras­ram was be­ing forced out by the new gov­ern­ment, the min­is­ter said: “I am not aware of that. I’m not aware of that at all.”

In 2021, then Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar called for Health Min­is­ter Ter­rance Deyals­ingh, Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Roshan Paras­ram and the health team han­dling COVID-19 to be re­placed.

Yes­ter­day Dr Bo­doe said that Paras­ram “is a CMO who has gone on leave and some­body has been ap­point­ed to act in his po­si­tion as is nor­mal prac­tice with the pub­lic ser­vice.”

Asked who is the tem­po­rary place­ment, Dr Bo­doe said, “I be­lieve it’s one Dr (Ani­ta) Laloo but that is in­for­ma­tion I can ver­i­fy for you.”

Re­ports are that Paras­ram will be on leave un­til Sep­tem­ber. How­ev­er, when the Health Min­is­ter was asked, he said: “I can’t say those are re­al­ly ad­min­is­tra­tive mat­ters that are dealt with by the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Health.”

When asked if Dr Paras­ram will re­turn to his po­si­tion af­ter his leave ex­pires, Bo­doe re­spond­ed: “As far as I’m aware, but again that is with­in the re­mit of the pub­lic ser­vice, that will be bet­ter ad­dressed to the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion.”

He em­pha­sised that he had no in­volve­ment in the mat­ter.

“As politi­cians, of course, we don’t get in­volved in the run­nings of the pub­lic ser­vice,” Bo­doe said.