The fire that destroyed the Ministry of Health building on Brickdam last July has been blamed for the salary woes of Region Nine Malaria Control Programme (MCP) worker, Roland Xavier, who has not been paid for last year.

Minister within the Ministry of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran said that the situation is “unfortunate”. In an interview, he said that he has only now heard of the man’s plight and checked with the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary (PS) and “they have indicated that the fire has caused problems”. This newspaper had reported on Xavier’s plight and was told that despite numerous letters and complaints to the authorities, he was not paid for the entire 2009.

In an interview on Wednesday, Ramsaran noted that he was told that a letter had been written to the Ministry in February last year. “Was it indeed that the PS had fixed something and the fire destroyed it because they said they wrote the PS in February? The fire was in July. Things go sometimes slowly. They wrote in February. Did the letter come down in February”, asked Ramsaran, adding that the system is slow sometimes.

His understanding, he said, was that Xavier was employed as a labourer until recently when he went over the retirement age. The minister noted that Xavier was also trained as a microscopist but was never employed as one. This needs to be looked at, he stated, emphasizing that there were others who had experienced no problems. “I am definitely saddened by the fact…I have no reason to doubt it that he has been so discomfited for a year. Why the system did not kick in God knows”, Ramsaran said. “We need to see that this doesn’t happen again and we need to look and see how we can rectify that”, he added.

Last week, Chairman of Region Nine, Clarindo Lucas had told this newspaper that he had “tried his best” to have the matter resolved with the relevant Ministry of Health personnel and had only last week raised the issue again but he had not received a response. He had noted that the issue was raised when a regional team was on a visit to Aishalton recently. “This is a man who has given dedicated work”, he acknowledged emphasizing that he had raised the matter many times and questioning why it had not been resolved. The Chairman had noted that Xavier is a “family man” and has children in school and “all of us are concerned”.

Lucas had said too that although there are plans to incorporate the MCP into the regional system, up to the end of last year, the administration had no control over the unit. Ramsaran noted, however that the process of transition is ongoing and this is an administrative issue and the regional authorities need to exercise control.