UDC Dismissals. David Thompson’s First Act of Political Victimisation?

The dismissals have started.

Is this David Thompson’s first act of political victimisation? His reasons for these dismissals are flimsy at best.  It appears to be a straightforward case of getting rid of BLP people so that their jobs can be given to DLP people.

The prime minister says it is “staggering” that eight months of O’Brien Trotman’s contract would come to $109,551.24 (gross) or $83,666 (net). But when we convert it to monthly figures it is $13,693.90 gross or $10,458.25 net, a big salary but certainly not the biggest in Barbados, and certainly comparable to what many other top people receive in the public and private sector.

We will wait and see who else in Barbados will get the axe, to be replaced by DLP faithfuls. After all, Thompson warned long before he became prime minister that he was eager for the DLP to eat “the fatted calf”.

Cat Piss

http://www.nationnews.com/ 

GONE. Former UDC deputy director Andrew Payne (at left) leaving that job for the last time yesterday. George Edghill at his UDC office, shortly after the Prime Minister announced his contract had been terminated. (Pictures by Antonio Miller.)

http://www.nationnews.com/story/349490053667612.php

AXED !
Published on: 2/7/08.

by TRACY MOORE

GOVERNMENT has terminated the contracts of the director and the urban renewal advisor of the Urban Development Commission (UDC) effective immediately.

Prime Minister David Thompson made the announcement yesterday at the after-Cabinet Press briefing at Government Headquarters.

Last August, George Edghill was appointed director with a $16 000 per month salary in a five-year contract.

O’Brien Trotman, the previous director, retired and returned to the UDC to the post of “urban renewal advisor”.

According to the Prime Minister, Edghill was fired with cause.

“On January 17, the director of UDC, purportedly acting under the instructions of the [former] Minister of Economic Affairs and Development, the Honourable Mia Mottley, sought just a day after the election, to appoint a deputy director [Andrew Payne].

“We will revoke that appointment and that person will return to their substantive position.

“We can’t imagine that Edghill was not aware that a change of Government had taken place and at that point there was no Minister of Economic Affairs and Development in Barbados; that there was only a Prime Minister and an Attorney-General and therefore writing a letter to somebody appointing them to a position on behalf of a minister who did not exist is a very serious matter and not in keeping of sensible management practices,” he charged.

In terms of Trotman, the Prime Minister calculated that a full remuneration package paying out the last eight months of his contract would come to $109 551.24 (gross) or $83 666 (net).

“These figures are staggering, frankly, but I believe we are certainly not going to deprive anybody of their legal rights but we are certainly not going to allow the situation . . . at the UDC to continue,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he was disappointed that under UDC chairman Sir Henry Forde, the contracts of Trotman and Edghill gave them the options to terminate their contracts, with six months’ notice, but gave the commission no option to terminate their contracts.

“I can’t imagine that such contracts would leave the legal brains of Sir Henry and members of the board so easily and this is something that we are not going to accept,” he said.

Meanwhile, the appointments of the UDC board members have also been revoked and Government will put in place an interim director “to ensure that the functioning of the UDC can continue during that period”.

Thompson said an analysis would be undertaken to estimate the money spent by the UDC, noting that large supplements were approved just before elections, for both the UDC and the Rural Development Commission. (TM)