Turning now to the story that has been dominating the news all week…tonight, the Public Service Union is responding to the decision by the Forestry Department to place Forester Daniel Chi on 5 days administrative leave.
Now, we have since learned that is not suspension; administrative leave is supposedly only time for his higher-up's to investigate the complaint against him.
His letter of notice is signed by CEO of the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Dr Kenrick Williams.
But, Williams writes that the leave is not for an investigation - but because Forester Chi supposedly "failed to act in a professional manner."
Today, the President of the PSU had a press briefing via zoom and said the Ministry has already messed up in it procedure:
Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union
"There are procedural flaws within that letter issued by the CEO. If it is that they believe that this is something that they can take to the commission, then we will of course do as we always do, point out their incompetence and walk out of that room in a matter of minutes. The public have been misled into thinking that the officer in charge cut off the prime minister, as the prime minister said in his interview the officer set down phone on him. At no point in time did Mr. Chi have any phone in his possession. I want to state categorically that at no point in time did the prime minister call Mr. Chi on his phone and spoke to Mr. Chi on Mr. Chi's phone, neither did the prime minister call any other law enforcement agency that was there to speak with them or to speak with Mr. Chi. Mr. Chi had no phone in his possession in his hand. As a matter of fact, his hands were occupied with removing the illegal plants."
"Now, I again don't know who would have been at the other end of that alleged phone call that I understand it was on speaker phone and the woman was talking with somebody. With all the prank calls that are out there, as a public officer I dare anybody that I am accessing in my job to call any minister or prime minister and tell me that hold here, the man wants to talk to you. I don't know who is on the other end of that phone."
Reporter
"You made the point that he actually never had a phone and it wasn't his phone or whatever, but they did speak - the Prime Minister and Mr. Chi, I think it was video call and in the previous interview you mention that he spoke maybe based on his emotions, so the charge has been levied against him, would you concede that he was rude in his interaction with the Prime Minister. He wasn't professional."
Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union
"I am unaware that it was a video call. I am unaware if it was a regular call on speaker phone. I am unaware if it was a WhatsApp call. I don't know, so, again I can only say that I personally would not be speaking with anybody on someone else's phone while on speaker purporting or alleging to be the prime minister of Belize."
Jules Vasquez
"But he ignored a request from the head of the government. This is not a minor issue. Is the public service union capable of defending officer Chi?"
Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union
"We are well capable of ensuring that that occurs and if necessary to ensure that the good name of Mr. Chi is restored in the supreme court of Belize. The actions so far are punitive and it already gives Mr. Chi the right to seek damages."
Jules Vasquez
"You have the government minister saying listen, business has to proceed and these people are standing in the way of business. The prime minister alluded to the same that public officers move to slow, they do not move at the pace of business. This is a government as they portray that is business minded."
Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union
"Yeah, but you cannot be business minded in illegal and illicit trade if you are the government and if you hold some of the highest position in government. We now see the importation of illegal plants into the country and we will defend that in the name of business? and so whether it was a request or whether it was a directive, none of them have any business calling any public officer and that Minister Mai and the Prime Minister must be held accountable for interfering in the work of customs officers, forestry officers and BAHA officers. They need to be reprimanded and told stop. These ministers need to get out of their heads that they run the public service. The public service is ran by public officers who are appointed by a legally and constitutionally appointed public service commission. Get out of your head that you need to approve of the process. Thats why you have professionals within the public service to establish these processes. As has been shown Miss Chan participated in that familiarization session of the process, so there is no excuse. There is wilful and deliberate intention by the importer to violate the process and the practice and the policy that was established by the relevant authorities."
And Flowers is convinced that Daniel Chi acted properly - so much so that he says his conduct was exemplary. He says that's why he'll nominate this Forestry Officer for a special award:
Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union
"He is not by himself and public officers are demanding of this union to support him and to ensure that he is nominated for one of those public service awards next year and I will be nominating him for either the prime minister or the governor general award. I want to put that out there one time, so nobody better come and ask me for a nomination, because I will be nominating Danny. But I am happy to know that brother Chi was there and acted solely on the instructions of the acting chief forest officer and his immediate supervisor and so I believe this matter if it reaches the commission would be a waste of the commission's time."
And the allegation that it is a waste of time is not only procedural; the Public Service Union also alleges that Chi acted properly by the binding requirements of the CITES convention which Belize is a signatory to. The Minister of Agriculture has said that the regs are not binding - while many differ. Next week we'll examine whether Belize is indeed bound by the letter of the CITES convention.
