“I have for some time wanted to inform the press and the public on the appointment of a Deputy Governor,” Her Excellency Governor Elizabeth Carriere in a statement announced at a special press conference today, Friday, October 14, 2016.
Just days after we published the Governor saying: “I regret to say that the process and it was an excellent and thorough process – the selection board, reached a unanimous conclusion that did not result in the selection of any of the assessed candidates for the substantial position of deputy governor,” the Governor on October 11 announced:
Mrs. Sarita Francis
“From Monday, 10 October Mrs. Sarita Francis has been appointed as the temporary Acting Deputy Governor. Her Excellency the Governor will make a formal announcement about this and the longer term filling of the Deputy Governor post at a press conference to be held later this week.”
So it was today, the Governor who had informed that she had undertaken the duties herself for some time, announced: “I am pleased that I can now announce…I have appointed Mrs. Lyndell Simpson to act as Deputy Governor for a one-year period, beginning 1st December, 2016.”
The Governor repeated her information that the very rigorous selection process did not result in the selection of a substantive Deputy Governor. “The selection panel was unanimous in this conclusion,” she added.
She said that she then had to consider her options: “should I re-advertise, beginning again a potentially long process, and risking that again there would be no selection for the role? Or should i just appoint someone, without a rigorous process?”
In the end she said, “I concluded, after listening to great deal of very good advice, that I should consider the pool of applicants as potential Deputy Governors, and select one of them to act for a reasonable period, in the position, while providing strong development assistance and then reassessing at the end of that period whether that person was ready to assume the substantive position.”
She then decided, “to select the highest scoring candidate from that assessment exercise.” That person being Mrs. Simpson who will assume the role of Acting Deputy Governor, as of 1st December.
Reminding that she been doing the work of the Deputy Governor since the end of August, she had with pleasure informed of the acting appointment of previous Deputy Governor Mrs. Sarita Francis who graciously agreed to stand in as Acting Deputy Governor until Mrs. Simpson takes up her post.
Her Excellency informed she learned very well what, a Deputy Governor does. “But I also learned first-hand how things work in the public service – what works well and what needs fixing.”
“This has also provided me with an excellent in-depth appreciation of the need for HR transformation,” she said, “about which I will be speaking to you later this morning with the Honourable Deputy Premier.”
