From private sector to public...
Last week, you heard the bitter complaints that the Public Service Union and its President leveled at the Briceno Government for failing to identify a new Chairperson for the Public Service Commission.
We told you the PSU says it has been overwhelmed by calls from public officers waiting to be appointed or confirmed or those who have pending disciplinary cases before the Commission. Additionally, they have received desperation calls from retired public officers who have exhausted their salary advance considerations with the Treasury Department. As a result, they are without an income and cannot receive their retirement benefits from the Government.
The Briceno Government's candidate, Cresencio Sosa Sr., has asked the Government to withdraw his name for the post of PSC Chairman due to illness, so the Government is again looking for a replacement.
The PSU President recently publicly speculated that the reason why the Government was struggling to find a new candidate was that they were looking for a chairperson that they could exert political influence over. Yesterday, the PM insisted that it was the opposite. He claims they could have identified a PUP-friendly candidate, but that decision was not taken. Here's our back-and-forth with the PM over the vacant PSC Chairmanship:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"With the first one that we were nominating was Crescencio Sosa. We wanted to take our time. I mean we could have put in anybody to go in there. Crescencio Sosa was the first that we really attempted to nominate and everybody had great respect for Crescencio Sosa who worked extensively for both governments. Unfortunately, just before he was to start his work he got sick and so is his wife, so as a family they said that it's best that he does not take up the position because for those that know Crescencio Sosa, once he takes on something he goes all out and obviously because of his condition he would not be able to do that. Once that happened, then we have been looking and trying to find somebody that meets the criteria that would be able to do a good job to be able to get rid of all the backlog within the Public Service Commission. Last week after discussing a number of - many, many names were coming up and a lot of them we felt that they are just too close to the P.U.P. although they would have been competent and we could have named them but we just felt it's best - tek yoh time and put somebody good as opposed to just put somebody deh just because. So last week I interviewed Diana Murillo Price, who has been a public officer for forty years and she is about to retire probably in the next two, three weeks from now. And she has said that she would be honoured to take on that position, so if the Leader of the Opposition has not been written to, he would be written to between today or tomorrow on the name."
Reporter
"What do you make of the PSU's recommendation? they've also mentioned somebody they think would command great respect within the public service, Mr. Alfredo Cruz."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"That name did come up, but Mr. Cruz had some issues while he was working and I would prefer not to comment. I could tell you privately and because of that it was said that maybe we should not name him. But the Public Service Union President needs to understand what is his role. If he wants to name those names, then he can be elected and become a leader of a party and then become the prime minister. They can make recommendations and if he could only be a little bit more respectful, I think he could get a lot more done. But his tone of his letter..."
We also asked the PM about the candidate that the Public Service Union floated last week, Alfredo Cruz. He said that his vetting team had found some issues of concern about this candidate, which makes him unsuitable.
