It was bad enough, his pronouncements on FlyMontserrat’s recent airline ‘incidents’ when he continually failed to recognise his duty and responsibility to Montserrat regarding ‘air safety’ and related matters, which had evoked an article which never got published, overcome by other matters, captioned “Governor ‘disingenuous’ about FlyMontserrat’s airport incidents.” His claim, he is not an expert. No one can or should think he is an expert on most of his pronouncements, opinions or decisions. He makes those on expert advice.
But here he is, initially saying he has acted on advice, Governor Andrew Pearce has stunned the Montserrat Civil Service Association (MCSA), and us here how he has, and is handling the exorbitant misbehaviour of his deputy Mrs. Lyndell Simpson, against a very senior member of her staff, a senior director in the Human Resource Management Unit. (is there a strange irony here?). As well at a supermarket against another parent. (See her story – Gilford, when she found her voice.)
The details are in this issue as best we can present it, with the Governor firstly misrepresenting the situation as “a matter concerning private family issues between the individuals involved.” In a statement as to the actions he has taken, he says, “Such matters should be addressed internally through standard public service procedures. It is inappropriate for a staff complaint against a public service colleague to be aired in public.”
The Governor received the first complaint immediately after it’s occurrence on that Wednesday morning, which told him Mrs. Simpson approached her standing in the corridor outside and spoke loudly for all to hear. (including the deputy’s second in command Mrs. Cheverlyn Simpson, supervisor of the director).
When nothing happened other than the Governor simplifying this gross matter suggesting that the director takes up the matter with the offender after he drew attention about her method of complaint. (He could not recognise the result of a very shaken person, his first sign of ignorance in the matter) who may end up yet in a doctor’s office; the MCSA president took up the matter pointing out to the Governor the very serious nature of Mrs. Simpson’s most inappropriate conduct. A conduct which when you read the Deputy Governor’s post duties and obligations, and the Public Service Code of Conduct, leaves no one with any doubt, except the Governor and his advisers as to what any following immediate actions should be.
What is really deplorable Governor, is your disappointment of what you call, “the confrontational and biased behaviour of the President of the MCSA, based on a one-sided view of the incident;” your hurling condemnation and accusations at the MCSA president directly to her and through this unfortunate Statement, saying “It is deplorable that the President of the MCSA is choosing to treat another civil servant in this way without any apparent concern for the welfare of the family members involved. The latest news is that the Director’s son was not even involved in the complaint that prompted the DG’s behaviour. As for the other parent, observing her shortly after she was attacked, she could not even speak, she was still so shaken.
Governor, maybe we will relent should we hear what the other side is, you having discussed the matter with the DG. The Governor should be wary that any further necessary action by the MCSA may be directed at him such as asking for his removal for incompetence. And there will be support for that in respect of others. Bad timing perhaps but urgent from his behaviour.
There is no doubt the MCSA took her responsibility seriously, as I did at my brief stint as Secretary of the MCSA, the extent she took to attract the Governor’s attention the serious infractions, worsened because of the might of the position, of the Deputy Governor in her double explosion within 72 hours, while one would not assume she went out of her way as she did on the first occasion to accost her victims.
The Governor promises that the “matter will be handled internally within the public service as is normal good practice; a practice I would have expected the CSA to strongly defend as a protection for all civil servants.”
The Governor needs to know that there is, almost (to be kind), NO normal good practice within the public service, and the unit that runs it. It’s a long outstanding matter with which he needs to be familiar, as he will not be hearing this for the first time.
