Marcelle Joseph, the junior-level worker sacked from the Office of the President (OP), had written the Ethic Relations Commission (ERC) last month, saying that she was victimised and in need of representation.
Joseph lodged a complaint against OP just days after her dismissal on February 8, 2011, on the grounds that she was wronged. “It is my belief that I am being made a scapegoat in this issue as I am the only person that has been terminated without a proper investigation into this matter, while the two other individuals were not disciplined in any way,” Joseph wrote in the February 14, 2011 letter which this newspaper has seen. It is unclear why Joseph sought redress from the ERC.
Joseph was reportedly sacked on the allegation that she leaked information to the press. But OP has denied this claim, saying that her contract was terminated after she entered the Permanent Secretary’s Secretariat without permission and copied and tampered with records. Joseph has since fled to the US.
Joseph, in her complaint, reported that she was issued a letter of termination and was given no reason for the dismissal. She also made mention of an article which appeared in the Kaieteur Newspaper of February 6, 2011, in which documents, one of which bore her name, were published.
Joseph pointed out that other documents were carried in the same article, bearing the signatures of two other OP staffers. “I wish to state categorically that I have no knowledge of how the papers got hold of such official documents,” she wrote. “I also believe that this is a despicable attempt on the part of my employers to besmirch my good name and character, and I would like to see both cleared, after a proper and professional investigation is conducted,” she added.
Joseph called on the ERC to offer her representation, referring to the case as ludicrous and an attempt to blemish her “impeccable professional record and destroy my character.”
Although OP later said in a statement that Joseph “apparently downloaded routine information” stored on the computer in the Permanent Secretary’s Secretariat, police searched her home last week and questioned her mother, Jennifer Haynes, about a flash drive and her daughter’s whereabouts. Haynes said that four plainclothes police officers turned up at her home and sought permission to conduct the search. The policemen said they were acting on the direction of OP.
The Alliance For Change (AFC) picketed OP last week over Joseph’s dismissal, calling it unjustified. The party also condemned the intimidation of her family.
