• 92% of year’s budget spent in seven months

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s chief housing officer was reprimanded for “excessive spending” that allegedly exhausted 92 percent of the department’s budget within the fiscal year’s first seven months.

Antoinette Thompson, the top civil servant in the then-Ministry of Transport and Housing until she was placed on “unrecorded leave” in April 2023, is alleging in legal filings that Oral Lafleur “negligently executed contracts” without her knowledge or permission despite she being the senior financial officer in the ministry until her removal.

This, according to a document attached to her fixed claim, led to a meeting with Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, and a budget analyst from the same ministry where Mr Lafleur was purportedly “admonished” for the Department of Housing’s spending and “consequent depletion of funds”.

Ms Thompson, in a February 17, 2023, minute paper, told the chief housing officer to “cease making contractual commitments” without first confirming funds are available because 92 percent of the Department’s budget allocation for the fiscal year 2022-2023 had been exhausted with some five months still remaining.

“Some time in or around mid-February 2023, a matter was brought to the claimant’s attention involving the chief housing officer in the Ministry of Housing,” Ms Thompson, who was the ministry’s permanent secretary, alleged.

“The claimant, in her capacity as principal financial officer of the Ministry of Transport and Housing, had cause to question the excessive spending and subsequent depletion of that Department’s budget by the chief housing officer. The chief housing officer was discovered to have negligently executed contracts without the knowledge and authorisation of the claimant.

“The claimant, after consultation with the financial secretary, wrote to the chief housing officer directing him to ‘refer all matters within the remit of the permanent secretary’ to the claimant’s office,” Ms Thompson added, which was required by the Public Finance Act.

“Some time in or around late March 2023, after meeting with the financial secretary, the chief housing officer was formally directed to show authorisation for the executing of multiple contracts and expenses for which the Government was liable.”

Ms Thompson, in the February 17, 2023, minute paper addressed to Mr Lafleur, wrote: “During the aforementioned meeting with financial secretary Wilson and the Ministry of Finance’s budget analyst, you were admonished regarding spending and the consequent depletion of funds in the Department of Housing budget to the point where it was suggested a financial analyst was needed to help manage the fund.”

This was in addition to the recent hiring of a financial officer, and Ms Thompson continued: “However, to my point, the admonition was made for better management of the Department’s funds and to cease making contractual commitments for projects without first confirming the availability of funds to facilitate the same.

“The budget analysts advised you that funding was approximately 92 percent depleted and consequently there should be better management of the fund. You were also advised by financial secretary Wilson to seek to ensure that there is a better return on investment so that the Department’s programmes would result in funds being available for payments.”

Ms Thompson’s paper also urged the chief housing officer “to create a situation where government is not only funding the housing projects and incidentals but also having to continually pay for infrastructural works... Financial secretary Wilson alluded to the way the Department of Housing functioned in the 1980s utilising the return on investment for the sale of houses”.

The then-permanent secretary also urged Mr Lafleur to ensure that contracts and documents contained all the necessary signatures before being presented to her for signing. Ms Thompson’s fixed claim also revealed this was not the only matter she had to address with the Department of Housing.

“Some time in or around March 2023, the claimant had cause to draft a memorandum to the acting chief housing officer in the Department of Housing describing the conflict of interest of a postman in the General Post Office,” Ms Thompson alleged.

“In breach of general orders 900 and 913, the postman had been awarded a few contracts and those contracts were referred to the claimant for signing. Recognising the conflict of interest, the claimant addressed the matter with the chief housing officer.” Housing was split from Transport in the Government’s latest reshuffle, and is now in Keith Bell’s ministerial portfolio.

Ms Thompson’s action is seeking damages being placed on “leave” from April 2023 with no details provided on this or when she is to return to work, leaving her in “an uncertain state of limbo”.

Asserting that her reputation has been “stained” by “erroneous” comments from Fred Mitchell, then-minister of the public service, and on PLP and government-linked social media blogs, she is arguing that the Davis administration has since April 2023 “effectively punished and disciplined the claimant without justification and the opportunity to address her accusers”.

Named as defendants are Prime Minister Philip Davis KC; Jobeth Coleby-Davis, now-minister of transport and energy; Nicole Campbell in her capacity as Cabinet secretary; Gina Thompson, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Public Service; Gaynell Rolle, under-secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Housing; and Dr Donna Miller, who has replaced Ms Thompson as acting permanent secretary.

The fixed claim portrays a situation where Ms Thompson’s relationship with Mrs Coleby-Davis, as her minister, and Ms Rolle and other officials in her ministry and its various departments appeared to have broken down such that she was being excluded from key meetings and allegedly squeezed out of her post.

“The actions of the defendants have created an untenable environment in the public service should the claimant return,” Ms Thompson alleged.