BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, March 14, 2017 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy has once again firmly defended his Team Unity Government’s reputation and actions in spite of claims of victimization of employees within the civil service.
Prime Minister Harris, while speaking on WINN FM 98.9’s Voices programme today, Tuesday, March 14th, 2017, said the government is “proud of its example of non victimization” in relation to the civil service and the broader public sector.
“We are saying let the best man do the job,” Dr. Harris stated. “That is why some people still ask us, ‘how come you all still have so and so there?’ Indeed, we used to hear often and even on this programme (Voices) that certain people ought not to be there and we did not go down that route because we said that would be part of the transformation that we will bring.”
The prime minister used what is transpiring in the United States of America, following the election of President Donald Trump, to further his point of political appointees being asked to do the right thing.
“Look at what you are hearing with the Trump Administration. Yesterday (Monday 13), it was that Trump had called for the resignation of all of them in the Department of Justice because when a new administration comes in, those who were too close to the political apparatus they know that they ought to go, and four thousand new jobs at the highest level of government go a-begging from the time Trump is sworn in; that is all those political people,” Dr. Harris added.
He continued, “The press secretaries like Erasmus Williams and all those other people who were provided political support they know that the decent thing to do is to resign but here in St. Kitts and Nevis some people won’t do that and then when the government does what every rational government will do, they call wolf—victimization. That is not victimization that is allowing the government a free hand to ensure that the people’s mandate is basically being executed.”
The nation’s leader stressed that where public servants are willing to work, the government has allowed them to do so, stating, “It is the same chief personnel officer we have who we met there; it is the same financial secretary who we met there; it is the same deputy financial secretary who we met there; it is the same budget director and I am confident up at this time that they have been doing a good job on behalf of the country and that is what I want that they give loyal, professional service to the government.”
