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“My boss probably feels that I know too much” – sacked OP employee
Marcelle Joseph, the Office of the President employee who was sacked last week on suspicion of leaking information to Kaieteur News about the purchase of 20 laptop computers believes that she was targeted.
“My boss probably feels that I know too much and this is his way of getting me out.”
Marcel Joseph
Dr. Nanda Gopaul
Her beliefs were stated in an interview with Mark Benschop on his benschopradio.com programme a few days after her dismissal.
In the interview, Joseph, who was a Technical Research Officer working directly under Permanent Secretary Dr. Nanda Gopaul denied any involvement in the leak of the information to Kaieteur News. She is still puzzled over her dismissal, especially since her contract would have expired in 2013.
She explained that she had been working with Gopaul since 2003 and she finds it strange that he now believes that she is less than confidential.
“This whole thing makes me think, ‘what the hell did I do wrong?’”
According to Joseph, she did not even know about the Kaieteur News publication of the receipts.
It was only when someone brought it to her attention that she checked the newspapers and saw copies of the receipts with her signature as well as that of a cleaner who had also signed to receive the lap tops.
“There was no proper investigation, nothing to determine how the leak came about.”
Joseph explained that anything that comes into the Office of the President, especially items coming directly through the office of the Permanent Secretary, where she was employed, has to be stamped.
“If you look back at these invoices that they claimed was leaked from Office of the President, then you will notice no stamp bearing the Office of the President’s name or the date it was received, neither does it have the PS’s comment at the bottom of it,” the sacked OP employee stated.
“The record that Office of the President has, has a stamp, also it has the PS’s acknowledgement ‘AO please file’. Look in Kaieteur News dated Sunday 6th February, it has nothing of the sort. It’s just a plain blank delivery note. So I don’t understand that my Permanent Secretary N.K. Gopaul can tell me that this was leaked from Office of the President,” Joseph explained.
She said that she was instructed to sign for the computers by her boss in keeping with the terms of her job.
However, she stated that she did and still does not know what the computers were for or where they are at the moment.
But she described the atmosphere within the Office of the President as very secretive. Everything that is done there is a secret.
But in light of all the explanations, Joseph still does not know why she was made the scapegoat.
“That is a question I have been trying to figure out. I don’t know if it has to do with my affiliation with probably anti-government people. I have no idea, but I’m willing to get to the bottom of it,” Joseph said.
Joseph was one of the signatories on the delivery receipt for the first set of computers. There were 13 computers in that shipment.
Promptly after Kaieteur News published the story about the 20 laptops, and in the wake of the denial by Office of the President, this newspaper published the three receipts and proved beyond doubt that the purchases were made.
Office of the President then admitted to the purchases but contended that they were not linked to the One Laptop Per Family project.
This newspaper never made such a link.
Joseph, and her other two colleagues who signed for subsequent deliveries were called into Nanda Gopaul’s office and questioned about their knowledge as to how the information leaked. Each was asked, and all responded in the negative. They were then told to give a statement.
Subsequently, Minister of Public Service, Jennifer Westford called a meeting with the three employees. This meeting was held at the Public Service Ministry. Kaieteur News understands that the persons went through a similar drill as at the previous meeting.
Days later, Joseph was served with a letter which stated that her contract would be terminated. That contract would have come to an end on March 7, 2013. It stated that it could be terminated without reason.
In the interview, Joseph said that she feels threatened by a telephone call that she received from a senior Government functionary following her sacking. That functionary has since been identified as Odinga Lumumba.
According to the woman, the caller also accused her of leaking the information to this newspaper, saying, “If it wasn’t you then it had to be God.”
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