The government continues to pay two senior civil servants who have not worked in two years their full salary, members of the Legislative Assembly’s Finance Committee heard Monday.
Leader of the Opposition Alden McLaughlin queried the status of three senior civil servants – former Ministry of Education Chief Officer Angela Martins, former Deputy Financial Secretary Deborah Drummond and former Health Ministry Chief Officer Diane Montoya – who were placed on required leave in 2009 following the change of government.
The women have not been to work since 1 July, 2009, but two are still being paid their full salaries and one has taken early retirement.
Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks explained that Ms Martins is now retired and the two other women remained employed by the Civil Service, but “were not currently actively engaged in public service activities”.
Asked to explain what kind of leave Ms Drummond and Ms Montoya were on, without specifying which he was talking about, Mr. Ebanks said one was on “required leave” and the other on “a less formal leave”.
He said the Civil Service was currently trying to work out an “amicable arrangement that is mutually agreeable to them and to the Civil Service”.
George Town MLA Ellio Solomon then asked the deputy governor: “Who put them on leave and why?”, to which Mr. Ebanks responded that they were placed on required leave by the former chief secretary. “Obviously, the former chief secretary felt that, based on information that he had, that their presence within the organisation was not desired,” he said. Pressed for more details on why the three civil servants had been removed, Mr. Ebanks said: “Information [the former chief secretary has] is not necessarily information I have at my disposal.”
None of the three civil servants have been accused of any wrongdoing.
Mr. Ebanks told Mr. McLaughlin that Ms Martins was 57 when she took early retirement. “The terms of her retirement were such that she did not suffer any damage or loss relative to what she would have received had she continued to work until her normal retirement age of 60,” he said.
He told legislators at the Finance Committee meeting at which projected spending for the Civil Service was being examined on Monday night, 20 June, that the salary range of those senior civil servants was in the range of $120,000 to $130,000 a year.
This is not the first time senior civil servants have been placed on leave or been removed following a change of government, Premier McKeeva Bush, who was chairing the meeting, pointed out, citing cases in which the People’s Progressive Movement government had forced other senior civil servants on leave or removed them from their positions.
He questioned whether other work could be found for Ms Drummond or Ms Montoya within the Civil Service.
MLA Cline Glidden asked Mr. Ebanks if the Civil Service had offered the women other positions, to which Mr. Ebanks answered that no offers of other jobs within the Civil Service had been made to them.
“I am fully committed to try to find a solution that is fair and reasonable to the officers concerned and fair to the organisation. It is a very sensitive subject,” the deputy governor said.
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A classic example of what happens when politicians – of whatever hue – get their nasty fingers into the position of senior (and other) civil servants: careers ruined, costs increased, talents and experience underused, bitterness; and even worse, it frightens the rest of the Civil Service and reduces their efficiency and willingness to tell the truth in giving impartial advice (as is their duty) to politicians about the effects of their ideas and proposals. All this, of course, is accentuated in a small country – witness in particular the decline of and corruption in several other Caribbean islands and other small nations..
In these times of economic hardship for all Caymanians and residents of these 3 blessed islands, it is outrageous and egregious that 3 former civil servants have received full pay even though they haven’t worked one single day since 2009! These people have been fed richly from the Government’s everlasting trough for too long! Freeloaders is what they are! Cut ’em off! And soon!
These people have been fed richly from the Government’s everlasting trough for too long! Cut ’em off! And soon!
Well I never, the above quote is from a Bracker? talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Until Cayman Brac stop being a welfare state and start paying some real taxes for the benefits they receive.
This is a good topic. However, what we need to ask our broke government for is a bit more transparency. How many more civil servants are out there on leave, whether suspension, extended sick or otherwise, and are still receiving full pay benefits and why? Is there not a cut off amount of days for which one may be paid for extended leave?
What about Rudolph Dixon, Deputy Commissioner of Police, who was tried in court and was vindicated. He has not been back to work ever since. Is he still being paid?
I guess these civil servants did nothing illegal… (I would have taken the money myself if someone had been stupid enough to give it to me.) How about getting the money back from the shady characters that let this go on!