THE LATE MINISTER of Health Branford Taitt must have gone to his grave believing he was perhaps the most maligned person ever to have served in a Cabinet in Barbados.
Taitt certainly felt more than his fair share of the slings and arrows of public service over his handling of the controversial St Joseph Hospital affair, which was the subject of a Commission of Inquiry from 1998 to 2005.
He also faced an inquisition from a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over the said issue which published a report calling on him to resign.
According to NATION Editor Emeritus Harold Hoyte, in his book Eyewitness To Order And Disorder (2012): “Throughout 11 years of hearings, the accusations, wrangling, pillorying, allegations and charges, Taitt maintained his innocence: ‘I am not guilty’. . . ”.
“The question of resignation doesn’t arise out of that report,” [Taitt] said. “I don’t think any fair-minded person who becomes fully seized of the facts, would put this in the same category with mal-administration or malfeasance.”
“Taitt insisted neither he nor Carl Yarde, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health at the time of the incidents covered in the report, had done anything wrong, and suggested the controversy was motivated by typical political machination, Barbados-style, with which he would be familiar. The commission merely gave him a slap on the wrist.
“’These events demonstrate the need for a code of ethics for the holders of public office,” the commission said.
“The report added that Taitt was not responsible for the appointment, removal and discipline of public officers, or, for conduct of the financial business of the ministry, but failed to follow the rules.”
According to that rule book, the minister is not responsible for the conduct of the financial business of a ministry; that is the responsibility of the permanent secretary.
“Mr Taitt,” the report added, “the former Minister of Health and holder of public office, failed to observe acceptable ethical standards when in 1990 he permitted the main contractor and architect for the St Joseph Hospital project to provide building and architectural services respectively at his residence, Stanmore Terrace, Black Rock, St Michael, simultaneously with provision of similar services at the St Joseph Hospital project, for which the Minister of Health was accountable.”
There is no question that Taitt’s reputation and political legacy suffered as a result of the twin probes.
Hoyte wrote: “Reflection on Taitt’s subsequent political fortunes and his suddenly diminished role in the affairs of country and party, consequent upon this saga, suggests that while the commission pondered and politicians postponed, the shining accomplishments of Taitt’s political life came swiftly to an unwarranted and ignominious termination.”
The moral in all this is, of course, that procrastination ill serves politicians themselves or, by extension, the nation.
Without attempting to draw any parallels, one cannot but reflect on the actions of three current DLP Ministers requested to appear before the PAC in relation to an investigation of the National Housing Corporation (NHC).
They are (through their attorneys), instead, questioning the power and jurisdiction of the PAC.
There is no doubt, in my mind, that a PAC, based upon the Standing Orders and the 2003 legislation, is a lawfully constituted body mandated to enquire into the expenditure of taxpayers’ funds and the authority to summon before it anyone associated with such activity whether from the public service or the political directorate.
The determination by the ministers that they would not attend PAC hearings means, as I understand it, that the PAC has now to file a report with the House of Assembly upon which it is expected to act.
Meantime, Parliament will take the Christmas recess which gives MPs time to reflect on their position and the next logical steps for the Committee.
Seems to me that in the absence of the ministers, the PAC can request the technocrats, especially the PSs, who are the accounting officers, as well as contractors involved in the targeted NHC projects at Valery and the Grotto, to appear as soon as is practicable in the new year.
There seems to be enough in the Special Audit to keep the PAC humming, while the ministers ponder their next move, with all eyes on an election date galloping over the horizon.
Albert Brandford is an independent political correspondent. Email: albertbrandford@nationnews.com
