after a change of government
| General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party Clement Rohee on Monday came out in strong defence of 24 persons who were recently dismissed by the Government, stating that he found nothing wrong with the appointment of the staffers, at the Office of the President (OP).The individuals, who were secretly working at the Office of the Presidency under the guise of “work processor operator”, were being paid to write letters to the editors of various newspapers under assumed names, as well as to create fake profiles on facebook and other social websites.Even worse, some were in receipt of contracts from state owned National Communications Network (NCN), reportedly collecting salaries from both OP and NCN. It has also been reported that the ‘phantom’ staffers were suspected of receiving pay from other state agencies.The new A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) administration terminated the services of the ‘phantom workers’ on June 1st, citing abuse of state resources.According to Rohee, it was ‘normal’, after a change of government, for the succeeding government to highlight instances of disapproval with previous policies“There is no government that comes in and takes up lock, stock and barrel what the previous government did.”“The APNU+AFC came into government, they found certain things that they were not happy with and they decided that they aren’t going to run with that.”That being said, Rohee condemned the “method” used in dispensing with the services of the OP staffers, stating that these “employees” had signed endorsed contracts terms and conditions of their employment as well as their benefit package.Rohee described the termination of the OP staffers as “willy nilly” and outside of the due process of the law“There was nothing illegal about the way they were employed or the setting up of these bodies within the Government apparatus.” he pointed to the setting up of an asset recovery unit, a widely publicized unit with clearly defined objectives, and sought to compare its operations to the ‘phantom’ OP staffers.Asked whether he did not see anything wrong with the employment of the individuals, Rohee maintained that the staffers were in actuality working for the former administration, though he brushed aside reminders that the duties of the staffers was to create fake facebook accounts and perpetuate propaganda.According to him, the staffers did not have to physically be at OP to be counted as staffers. |
