Today in a press release BELTRAIDE announced that the board of directors has decided to undergo a restructuring exercise. It says that the restructuring has resulted in the reassignment of certain staff, the consolidation of the supervision of two units and the promotion of two staff members. However it seems as if the new move has not gone down well with five of its employees, three senior staff and two junior staff who according to the press release have indicated they are not committed to the new direction set out by the Board of Directors and as a result have tendered their resignation.
The employees who have resigned have a combined total of twenty years with BELTRAIDE. They include Sanjeev Poornanada, Johnathan D’Silva, Desiree Mitchell, Egbert Bevans and Shevon Smith. In the press release BELTRAIDE sates that it regrets the employees actions taken but says it will continue to advance towards its organizational goals.
But according to sources the employees who were the Director of Business Facilitation and One Stop Shop, Director of Information and Promotion, Assistant Director of Business Facilitation and One Stop Shop and two investment officers quit because BELTRAIDE under its present directorship has failed, done limited and unacceptable work that has prevented BELTRAIDE from accomplishing its mandate.
This evening 7News was facilitated with a run down of assessments shared by staff members. The four page document list a number of inefficiencies. The report card on BELTRAIDE’ Executive Director Michael Swift according to the assessment provided to us is not a good one. It characterizes BELTRAIDE’s leadership as inappropriate and impersonal. Among the many faults listed it states that the Swift has failed to place BELTRAIDE in a more strategic position to be able to achieve its mandate. As for the changes, the dissenters claim that no consultation was made in the changes of personnel policy, and that the structural adjustments without any strategic review was unjustified.
7News did try to reach the ED Michael Swift for a response but we were told that he was out of office because he had been in a meeting.
