Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the statement in the Sunday Stabroek of May 31, 2015 in regards to me being sent on leave. My actions are being totally misrepresented and it amounts to injustice. There was display of unprofessional conduct on the day in question but it was certainly not by me and this could be attested to if a proper inquiry is conducted. It seems that trying to represent staff, being honest and forthright amount to being “grossly unprofessional, constituting insubordination, contemptuous and untenable.”
The incident took place at the end of the visit and in my office when only the Deputy Director and I along with the Ministers, the Permanent Secretary and the Permanent Secretary’s Admin. Assistant were present. No other staff member was present. I presented the Hon. Ministers with packages containing information on the operation of the Agency and a goal for the next year. It was thereafter; that I suggested to the Junior Minister, in conversational tone that she should build relationships because the staff and I are hurting from her remarks and utterances during the campaign trail which we feel was an attack on professionals serving the people and should not have been.
There is no time that I demanded an apology or said that I am not willing to work with the Ministers, to the contrary I have been preparing the staff for this from the time the announcement was made. I am not going to say more on this matter. A proper investigation should be conducted for the facts. I stand by what I say and I have been a public servant for over 40 years and worked with a number of Ministers through transition phases and always zealously guarded my professionalism, being honest, genuine and sincere and I see no reason for me to change my approach now. I intend to continue to be a professional consequently I will have no further comments in the media on this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Ann Greene
