By Annelia Nixon

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Straw Market Authority’s executive chairman says she will retire from the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) at the end of November after concerns were voiced about her holding posts with two different government entities.

Kelverna Small, a recent appointment to the Authority, addressed concerns about her also holding a position as assistant legal adviser at the PHA and other issues impacting its operations. Celestine Eneas, the Straw Vendors Advancement Association president, had questioned how Ms Small could hold both government jobs at once.

“I would like to know how she could be the chairman of the Straw Market Authority - an executive chairman - and she's also working in the hospital as an advisor, as a lawyer,” Ms Eneas said. “She has two jobs from nine to five. So how could she fulfill these two jobs? 

“She's an executive chair. An executive chair is responsible to work every day from 9am to 5pm. A chairman comes in once a month or when she feel likes. But she must hold a meeting once a month. She's not a chairman.” Executive chairs are not confined to merely heading a Board but are also involved in management and executive affairs.

But, having spent 43 years with the PHA, Ms Small told Tribune Business she is set to retire at the end of the month and then will join the Authority full-time as its executive chairman. She added that she has also assumed the duties of the Authority’s managing director until a full-time replacement is found.

“I retire at the end of this month from the PHA,” Ms Small said. “That's what they don't know... Here at the Straw Market, the two jobs being the executive chairman and the managing director because there's not a managing director now in place.

“The managing director contract expired, and we haven't found somebody yet to replace it. The position is being advertised and, as a matter of fact, the minister is supposed to be sending somebody. 

“So it's not that I want to hold two jobs as they are saying. A lot of persons don't know, and they won't ask. And there are many situations where persons sit as chairmen of boards - I'm chairman of the Board - and they still serve on other jobs,” she added.

“I'll assume this full-time once I'm retired. I basically only maintain my Board meetings, and I come in and check as an executive to make sure things are going the way they’re supposed to. But in terms of sitting here as a full time job, no, I don't do that. I just come in and check. But PHA is where I'm working until the end of this month.”

Ms Eneas said the Straw Market is in uproar as Ms Small fired the managing director and placed another employee on administrative leave. However, this was emphatically refuted by Ms Small.

“Nobody has been fired from here,” she said. “One person is on administrative leave, and he's getting his pay, pending certain investigations... The managing director, her contract expired from April. The Board decided that they would not renew it.”

Ms Eneas also claimed straw vendors have an issue with the way Ms Small and the Authority conduct business. “Number one, you have to be into the people,” Ms Eneas said. “And whenever a person come on board and they telling you, 'I'm the board, and it goes my way, and nobody dictates to me. I do what I want’….. that's the sentiment she was on the ground telling the vendors.

“And they were calling me while I home and telling me what she's saying. See, you could think those things, but you don't say it. So when you say it for the vendors to hear you, it's poor.”

However, Ms Small believes the dissatisfaction among vendors is a result of a 20 percent pay rise that she retracted, noting a few managers have been vocal about it. 

“In terms of staff being dissatisfied, it was agreed by the Board to give a 20 percent increase to the minor staff, which would have been the security and the custodians because their salaries are low and she said that they were unable to make pension,” Ms Small explained.

“The managing director gave a 20 percent increase straight across the board to all the managers and everything. And what happened is, I took it back because it was not for them to get. Nowhere in the history of the world do you hear a Government give you a 20 percent increase lump sum.

“All the managers were given 20 percent on their salaries. So that's probably where the discontent is coming from. They were not entitled to it. So they're upset that they got all this money. It's not me. When I speak, I don't speak on my behalf. I speak on the behalf of the Board, because that's who I represent. Everything, all your documents are brought before the Board, and the Board decided: 'No. This was not what we agreed to.' 

“We wanted to bring in a pension plan, because there was not a pension plan in place here, and she had asked for an increase just for those smaller staff because she said: ‘If you try to take a pension, they leave with nothing,” Ms Small added.

“So you look at, if you making $1,200, $1,300 a month, and you give a 20 percent increase, that ain't more than $120, $140. So, we saw that as no problem. But when you sought to give the managers, who already making three, four, $5,000, an increase... One went from $37,000 to like 40-something thousand. Where does that happens where you get $14,000 and $12,000 increase in one year? Where does that happen?”

In September, it was announced that the market would close for one week for cleaning and urgent repairs, including the installation of cooling systems and fire sprinkler motors. No closing date was revealed at the time and, according to Ms Small, she still does not have a date as she would have to wait for the minister of works and permanent secretary’s directive.

“What happened is, the Straw Market is filthy, nasty,” Ms Small said. “We have tourists coming here, and what I told them is we need to close it in order to clean it up. What it is, you have a lot of persons with stuff hanging all over the place. And the Fire Department is saying we don't need the health hazards in here. If a fire were to break out, it'll be a disaster. 

“So what we're looking at is trying to close, to clean and then clean them up. And I say clean them up, all the stuff they have hanging and all these extra pieces. Everybody wants a bigger stall, but you only allowed so much space. But with that space, they're trying to expand.

“We haven't given an exact date of closure or the cleaning because we were dealing with other administrative matters. And like I said, a managing director is not in place yet, and the minister and the permanent secretary would have to give me that directive. So you see, I do not act on my own,” she added.

“The ministry will make that decision as to who will clean it. I'm not sure if it's going to happen any more this year, but I know it needs to happen.”