Anna
Correia
Last week the Indigenous Peoples Affairs Ministry (MoIPA) made the headlines again much to the amusement of readers, for having paid a supplier of perishables $2.5 million, instead of a required $250,000. Someone asked if the people in the Ministry’s Accounts Department forgot to count! Apologists defended that it was just a mistake and that it was the responsibility of the supplier to be honest. But a difference of millions on the backs of taxpayers is a dangerous mistake, considering that the distressing state of the economy will inevitably bring its share of desperate and dishonest agents. “Business slow” and “things brown”.
The truth is, while the MoIPA was responsible for issuing the cheque, the Finance Ministry was responsible for cross-checking and releasing the payment. The two are therefore equally responsible for this blunder. However, it is the Permanent Secretary of the MoIPA, Vibert Welch, who takes the ultimate fall for this embarrassment, since he is the financial and administrative head of the Ministry, second only to the Minister.
But one can understand the confusion which reigns within the premises of the Ministry, considering the number of heads which were taken on to manage Amerindian affairs. Yet, judging from the mediocrity of its performance and the number of gaffes committed since the Allicock administration took over, one can safely venture that the idiom “two heads are better than one” is inapplicable to the MoIPA.
The number of senior officials scrambling to speak on Ministry business has caused a certain amount of confusion as to who really detains the mandate to direct and implement Indigenous Affairs policies. Perhaps this stems from the fact that the Government significantly delayed the appointment of a Permanent Secretary when the Allicock administration was installed. When Ministers Allicock and Garrido-Lowe assumed their positions in May 2015, a group of six individuals were introduced as the transition team, including three personal advisors and one technical recruit in the person of Minister Lowe’s daughter.
For some two months this new management forced the Ministry to a standstill as employees turned their fingers in fear of an uncertain future. During this period, men, such as then member of the transition team Martin Cheong, had a free pass to fire entire teams of contracted staff and remove personnel, some of whom were young Amerindian men on government payroll, now forced to work in the mines or leave the country in search of better opportunities. All but one member of staff were apolitical and therefore fired on unfounded grounds. New directives were being given, and meetings and discussions were being held between closed doors with handpicked staff who might have been privileged due to their expressed political persuasion.
During this period, the Ministry staff bore witness to what seemed like a competition between members of the transition team for the Office of the Permanent Secretary. The decision was made to commence visits to the interior by the Ministers and this transition team, despite there not being a Permanent Secretary to oversee expenditures. Administrative changes were being effectuated, departments rearranged, yet no one knew where the PS was going to be sitting since his office was reassigned.
It is therefore normal that when Vibert Welch assumed his duties from his improvised desk in the Ministry’s boardroom, disorder was what greeted him as he was thrown into the irregularities for which he would thenceforth be responsible. This included a lawsuit for unlawful interruption of government contract.
The delegation, whether voluntary or not, of the duties of the MoIPA Permanent Secretary comes at the detriment of the responsible management of the Ministry’s resources, and by extension indigenous beneficiaries. It is in defence of the reputation of the office he holds, as well as his record as a senior official, that Welch must maintain full control over all Ministry business on a daily basis. This should include ensuring that all staff apply the knowledge inherited from past experiences with the previous administration and are held accountable when necessary for their mistakes.
Ultimately, the failures of staff will continue to reflect the incompetency of their leaders.
