Landy Habet Questions Public Service Transfer System
Minister Orlando Habet says the public service may be shifting problems instead of fixing them when it transfers underperforming officers from one ministry to another. His comments come amid scrutiny of questionable spending at the Ministry of Defense. Finance Officer Salvador Alas, who handled many of the sub-ten-thousand-dollar purchases now under investigation, was later transferred to Habet’s Ministry of Sustainable Development and has since been placed on administrative leave. Habet would not comment on ministers currently on leave, but he did acknowledge concerns about the system that allowed Alas to be reassigned.
Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development
“ They have opted to be on leave or have been put on administrative leave, whichever the case is. And so as colleagues, I can’t comment negatively against them because I wasn’t privy to exactly what happened. I believe maybe much of what I have heard is procedural, and sometimes ourselves as ministers are not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the finance section of our ministry. Maybe we should, but by, by law, by legislation, it has been given to the chief administrative officer, which is the CEO in each ministry. Mr. Salvador Alas was changed to your ministry.”
Shane Williams
“Are you concerned that this might be happening in your ministry?”
Orlando Habet
“Yes, because the public service only has so many people that are employed. It takes years for you to become a senior officer and then you’re given a position let’s say, for example, as a finance officer in a ministry. If you do not perform or you do not work to the performance that is expected by the leaders who would be the minister and the CEO, then there is a request for a change and the public service does changes, I think every three years or so. But then if you have one officer that is not performing at the level that they should, all they do is switch them around. So you transfer the problem from one to the next, and it’s an, it’s a cycle that never ends.”
Shane Williams
“Do you know why Mr. Alas was suspended from Sustainable Development?”
Orlando Habet
“I think there were some irregularities. I don’t know the details because as I said, it’s under the CEO. But he falls not directly under the ministry, but he falls directly under the Public Service Ministry.”
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