President of NICH Dianne Haylock has been at the center of a firestorm of controversy: attacked in a string of television ads; rebuked on radio call in shows; publicly criticized by the NICH Board of Directors; her actions openly disavowed by the Minister of Culture; suspended without pay by Cabinet. But through it all the big question has been: will she be terminated when her contact comes up for renewal on February 19th? Well tonight we can tell you that best information suggests that she will not.
Cabinet made the decision at its Tuesday meeting to renew Haylock’s appointment for another year. We say appointment because government’s legal position is that while she has a two year employment contract, that is invalid- and that’s why the Prime Minister’s stated position is that the board of NICH doesn’t have the power to fire her, only the Minister can rescind her appointment. And he won’t, because - as we said at the top – Cabinet has made the decision for him.
But this raises two notable issues. First, in a January 6th letter to Cabinet, board member Osiris Rodriguez writing on behalf of the board states that the board, “remains strongly in favour of its resolution that Dianne Haylock should be terminated.” That letter to Cabinet comes out of the NICH Board’s January third meeting – which comes after the December 30th meeting where the resolution was passed to fire Haylock. But while it is a letter to Cabinet, it has not reached the cabinet – even though it has been widely circulated in the media.
But one document that we would guess cabinet has seen is a legal opinion on the Cruise Solutions/Cave Branch contract penned by government’s legal advisor Gian Ghandi. Ghandi says that in his opinion the agreement is not valid for two important reasons. First, it was signed by a representative of the Institute of Archaeology – which “is not a legal entity...” So the institute cannot enter into any legal contract. And added to that, while it was also signed by a NICH representative – not Dianne Haylock – that person did so without a resolution of the NICH Board of Directors, and without that, he had no authority to enter into the contract.
But beyond all the signing confusion is another more disturbing fact. Cave’s branch, referred to in the agreement as the “Nohoch Chen Archaeological Reserve” is not a reserve at all! The agreement states that the Institute of Archaeology declared it as a reserve, but Ghandi says that’s just wrong; reserves are declared by the Minister of Culture on the recommendation of the NICH Board of Directors. No such declaration has been made, so there’s no reserve – which tells us, there’s no agreement.
Ghandi concludes, quote, “it is my opinion that the agreement in question is quite clearly invalid.” But he warns that, “if the company ahs already started construction, a reasonable compensation would need to be paid for the work already done on the site.” That work has already commenced and it is left to be seen if NICH or government – which are both strapped for cash – will be able to come up with the cash to buy out Gegg, or if they will just have to let it lie. But if they do not cancel the contract by end of business tomorrow, they have been threatened with legal action by attorney for the Jaguar Paw Resort, Dr. Elson Kaseke.
