Agri., Minister appoints sacked PS, George Jervis, in organizational shakeup

Jan 27, 2019 News

The Ministry of Agriculture has a new organizational structure with former Permanent Secretary, George Jervis, who was sacked, now in a more powerful position.

The new organizational structure.

The situation has the ministry’s staffers, a number of them who were bypassed, asking whether Minister Noel Holder would have gone through the proper procedures.
Under the structures of ministries, the minister is supposed to be the policy maker while the PS is the one that runs the daily operations.
However, in recent months, a new organisational chart has seen changes in the ministry.
Jervis is reportedly now the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), a position that reportedly equivalent to the PS on the new organizational structure.
It will be recalled that Jervis was investigated by the police’s Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and his services terminated.
However, the ministry, under a new minister decided to bring back Jervis, appointing him head of the Agricultural Sector Development Unit (ASDU).
His one-year contract came to an end in September.
According to agri officials, the new CTO position has now taken over a lot of the responsibilities of the current PS, Delma Nedd.

L-r- Minister Noel Holder with new CTO, George Jervis (2nd r) and other agri officials

The PS has been left only with responsibilities of the Legal Unit, Personnel, Principal Assistant Secretary (General) and (Finance).
According to staffers, there is no immediate indication that Cabinet has approved such appointments.
The Cabinet had reportedly stepped in and overturned a previous decision to hire an official from the Guyana Sugar Corporation as the new PS.
According to insiders, there has been other incidents at the ministry which now calls for a probe.
“We had two senior officials who have not been paid 10 months now. Their gratuities have been withheld in a clear case of victimization.”
According to the officials, the ministry is clearly on a path of creating a situation of cronyism. “This situation is shameful and dangerous, people are being held hostage by a political boss and there is a deafening silence from the government. It is appalling that this kind of discrimination and open violation of Constitution and public service rules can happen now.”
Kaieteur News could not immediately make contact with Minister Holder for a comment.

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