Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie says no worker was fired from the Office of the Prime Minister in Tobago.
He was responding to media reports on Wednesday and yesterday which claimed the services of 80 workers were terminated.
Speaking during yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Cuffie said the workers were hired on a short-term basis from June to September during the election period.
“It was well known that the contracts would end in September. So nobody was fired, nobody was retrenched. It is simply that the short-term contracts had ended,” he added.
Asked if the workers could expect to be rehired, Cuffie said: “They were hired for three months and I don’t think the expectation will be that they will get fresh contracts.”
He said they were hired because “it was an election period, it was a political act,” adding that those jobs usually fall under the THA.
“During the past five years the THA had questioned the establishment of a Tobago Development Minister by the former PP Government. Under the new Government that ministry was disbanded.
Cuffie was also asked if he may have influenced the termination of a press conference hosted by attorney and Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge about the issuance of an election petition to Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, which was being broadcast on state owned CNMG on Monday evening.
Cuffie began his response by saying no one asked him about the broadcast of the Prime Minister’s swearing-in ceremony three weeks ago on the same station.
“There were two post-Cabinet press conferences after that and nobody asked why was the Prime Minister’s (swearing-in) pulled on that occasion.”
Dealing with Monday’s broadcast, Cuffie said: “I called no one at CNMG and I am the Minister responsible at (for) CNMG and I am part of a disciplined Cabinet. Nobody would call CNMG without calling me.”
He said he could confidently say “no Government Minister called CNMG. I did not call CNMG.”
He said it was “right and proper” for CNMG chairman Helen Drayton to have had a conversation with the chief executive officer at the television station, Ken Ali, as was reported.
In response to another question, Cuffie said he was not questioning the editorial judgment of senior staff at the station.
Cuffie said he held a heads of divisions meeting yesterday and Ali was present. “He did not raise any issue and we spoke about a number of things but he did not raise an issue of interference,” Cuffie said.
He said he enquired about the broadcast on Monday “and he (Ali) informed that it was a decision of the newsroom and I took his explanation.”
In response to another question, Cuffie said he never enquired about Ali’s contract at CNMG. He said that and other such matters were for the CNMG board to look at “decide how we progress.”
He said the CNMG and GIS board members were not partisan to the PNM but independent-minded people.
“It is one board where we all agreed that we will not have people with partisan interests,” he added.