SAYING OF THE WEEK
Logic will get you from A to Z,
Imagination will get you everywhere.
|
|
Health Authority Boss, David McCutcheon, has been appointing and promoting people left, right and centre within the Health Service without adhering to the established procedures within the Civil Service and in breach of the requirements to have these appointments and promotions approved by the Governor once they have been referred to the Public Service Commission. This is the story that has reached The New People of the comings and goings of the Manager of The Health Authority who receives the handsome salary of £120,000 a year plus gratuity and accommodation.
Gibraltar is already aware of the rush the GSD appeared to be in before the general election to conclude certain appointments and renew certain contracts, one of which was the contract of McCutcheon himself who had it renewed for four years. What we did not know is that this was happening despite no apparent assessments being carried out as to whether these persons on contract were doing their job properly and complying with established procedures. McCutcheon has clearly not been doing this.
Despite the fact that the Agenda for Change negotiated with the union UNITE transferred most of the staff to the Health Authority, these employees were told that their status as civil servants was unchanged. It follows therefore that any promotions or appointments to permanent and pensionable status should first be referred to the Public Service Commission on whose advice the Governor later approves [or not] these appointments. There are hundreds of cases where this has not happened before the Agenda for Change was implemented and afterwards. The question to ask is whether these appointments are lawful or not.
It appears that even the records of the number of employees in post are incomplete and that some personal files have gone missing. We are talking here about servants of the Crown, about procedures that have always been strictly adhered to, procedures that are the foundation upon which the Civil Service in Gibraltar has been built. Is it permissible that the head of a Government Authority should allow these procedures to have been ignored, either through ignorance or neglect? Had a junior clerical grade in the Health Authority committed a much lesser offence in the exercise of his/her duties, that person would have been put in front of a disciplinary board and might have even been dismissed. McCutcheon was contacted by senior officers of the Civil Service in 2010 seeking explanations for this state of affairs and he didn’t even have the courtesy to confirm receipt of the letter he was sent. Does McCutcheon think he is above the law, that he can do what he likes and that he is answerable to no-one; are these the powers he thought he could exercise when the GSD was in office because he thought he would be protected politically?
Peter Caruana certainly cannot plead ignorance of this state of affairs because it was already known in 2010 and the general election took place in December 2011. He already recognised that McCutcheon left much to be desired when, in his address at the retirement party of Joe Catania he said that if Catania would have agreed to it, he would have appointed him Manager of the Health Authority, McCutcheon was by his side when these remarks were made. Caruana then went on to renew his contract for four years instead of the three years that are normal in contracts such as these. Perhaps McCutcheon thought that if Caruana could promise appointments without reference to the Public Service Commission or to the Governor, as he did when he offered Catania the post of GHA Manager, he could continue to do the same with whoever he pleased within the Health authority. This state of affairs is totally unacceptable.
GSLP ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
In the picture: GSLP Leader, Fabian Picardo, gives the thumbs up to the last speaker whilst Joe Bossano, who chaired the meeting because the Party Chairman was contesting one of the posts to the executive committee, looks on approvingly. Juan Carlos Perez was re-elected into the executive, Dennis Cardona and Joe Cortes who had been co-opted into the executive in the run-up to the general election were also elected as were new members, Pat Orfila and John Dali. Nine members contested five posts. Three motions were passed, one on territorial waters, one on housing and one on employment. Some 500 members attended the meeting.
|
