AFC attracts protest after picket at OP

Feb 26, 2011 News

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The Office of the President’s attempt to clarify the position with respect to the ending of its contract with Ms. Marcelle Joseph, a junior employee, has not quelled the groundswell of support for the ex-staffer, as noteworthy members of the Alliance For Change (AFC), in solidarity with Ms Joseph, protested her dismissal yesterday.
An area in proximity to the western entrance of the Office of the President, on New Garden Street, was chosen for the demonstration.
Prominent among the supporters were Party Leader Raphael Trotman and Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan, who were joined by other AFC faithfuls and a few well-known personalities, in holding placards which asked probing questions and even made some demands.
Some of the messages read: ‘Why Gopaul instructed Marcelle to sign the invoice and then fire her?’ “The AFC demands a review of the laptop project?” “No more state secrets on how the people’s money is spent” “Why all the procurement must be for the benefit of the business buddies of the PPP/C?” “How is Jagdeo choosing who gets a laptop? Is he trying to buy votes?” and “PPP/C can’t keep promise – no freedom of information legislation.”
According to Party Chairman Ramjattan, Marcelle Joseph was sacked without any justification and she has indicated to the entire nation that she did not whistleblow on the Government. He opined that Joseph has paid the penalty for reason of suspicions.
He explained that the peaceful protest was also a demonstration to let the country know that what is happening in the Office of the President is absolute mischief “…and probably many evil things are going on there in relation to people’s monies and how business is conducted…we are here to demonstrate against those injustices and malpractices.”
Ramjattan stated that the Office of the President (OP) is sending a message of fear to the other officers who might have information on the mischief, criminalities and wrongdoing.

“They must keep their mouths shut or they will lose their job. That’s not a good thing for this democracy; we want a normal orthodox democracy, whereby, if people come by information within public institutions, they ought to be allowed to state those findings and discoveries. That it is what is going to strengthen the democracy.”
Party Leader Raphael Trotman, said that the Government has been found lying on the laptop issue and everything that is said, subsequently, will be scrutinzed.
“We have no reason to believe anything that is said regarding those laptops. And we believe the girl (Marcelle Joseph) has been unjustly and unfairly dealt with. Her child and her mother are the subjects of intimidation.”
Meanwhile as the AFC protest came to a conclusion, a motley crew hastily assembled, some say by an OP official, mounted a protest outside the party’s Campbellville headquarters. The anti-AFC group hid their faces behind placards while protesting and subsequently left.
According to one of the protesters who identified himself as David Williams, he and 15 other persons were there to vent their frustration at the AFC’s invisibility over the last five years.
When asked by a media operative if they were paid to protest, Williams replied in the negative.
He stated emphatically that the AFC has not been doing anything much to represent the people’s interest in the country or parliament, and it was surprising that it had now found its voice.
Police later arrived on the scene and were forced to intervene when one of the protesters alleged that social activist Mark Benschop had pushed him and tore his placard in the process.
The protester was advised that he could give a statement at the station if he felt that he had been assaulted. It is unclear if the man did take this course of action.
Yesterday’s protest by the AFC came less than 24 hours after the OP issued a statement explaining the reason behind Marcelle Joseph’s sacking.
It was disclosed that Ms Joseph was previously employed with the Press and Publicity Section but was transferred to the Permanent Secretary’s Secretariat five months ago.
“Recently, suppliers of goods and services have been complaining that Ms Joseph was in the habit of requesting lunch or lunch monies from them whenever their payments were ready for uplifting. As a result of such reports, the Permanent Secretary decided to transfer Ms Joseph to the Administrative Division,” OP declared.
The statement continued: “On February 4, 2011, Ms Joseph uplifted the keys to the Permanent Secretary’s Secretariat from the office security and unauthorisedly entered the office. She removed four flash drives and apparently downloaded routine information which was stored on the computer there. Additionally, she deleted some of the same minutes of payment records and other information from the computer.
“It was the unauthorised entry into the Permanent Secretary’s Secretariat, the copying and tampering with records that led to the termination of her contract, subsequent to being interviewed by both the Permanent Secretary and the Minister of the Public Service Ministry on her wrongdoing.”
OP stated in its release that Joseph’s termination “had nothing to do with her role in the leaking of information on the one laptop per family project”.
The government entity noted that “minutes of payment and other financial documents are nothing secretive as they are expenditures captured in the national estimates.
These payments are made openly and the records are easily accessible by junior level staff. These are processed and audited as a matter of routine. These payments are legitimately made for authorised transactions.
“There is nothing to hide. The efforts of Kaieteur News and Mr. Mark Benschop to market these disclosures as leaks represent their mere clutching at straws and attempts at creating sensationalism”.

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