Port boss axed
October 8, 2011 The Government has decided to terminate the appointment of Port Authority chairman Clive Spencer, who refused to carry out instructions allegedly given by Transport Minister Devant Maharaj to fire all the legal representatives used by the Port and reassign all work to Fortis Chambers and the law chambers of Subhas Panday, according to information received by the Sunday Express.
Sources said Cabinet last Thursday accepted a recommendation from the line Minister Maharaj to revoke Spencer's appointment.Spencer was appointed chairman in January of this year, when Jack Warner was the Minister with responsibility for the Transport portfolio.
Questioned yesterday on whether a decision was taken to fire Spencer, Maharaj said: "Well he was never hired so I don't know how he could be fired". He said the position of Port Authority chairman was an "appointment".Was Spencer to be dis-appointed? Maharaj was asked.
"Well all of us could be disappointed. I could be disappointed. And when you look at the track record you have (former ministers) Therese Baptiste-Cornelis, (Rudrawatee) Nan Ramgoolam and (former Police Service Commission chairman) Nizam Mohammed. Once you are there at the pleasure of the Government you could be replaced in a day or in a heartbeat. Nobody has a mortgage on any position. MPs have a five year contract with the people and at the end of the five years the people decide if they want to renew it or not," Maharaj stated.
So was he confirming that a decision was taken to terminate Spencer's appointment? "I wouldn't comment on that. I run my business with the boards rather than in the media. When there is something to come out, it would come out, alright?". Maharaj had denied in a previous Express article that he had ever issued any instructions to fire all the legal representatives used by the Port and reassign all work to Fortis Chambers and the law chambers of Panday.
But Spencer told the Sunday Express that he was informed that the Cabinet considered Maharaj's recommendation that he be removed as chairman and the Cabinet concurred with the recommendation. Spencer said he was not formally notified by letter but "that's on its way I believe".
"It would mean that my appointment would have been revoked for speaking the truth. I really couldn't care too damns," he said, adding "These people are too vulgar"."When they can't drive you into subordination they try to destroy you," he said.
"I have done nothing wrong. All I have said is I am unable to carry out an instruction because it lacks a number of things with which I would not be associated. And he (Maharaj) got on his high horse and decided to come for the jugular. But I have gotten accustomed to that kind of absurdity," said Spencer, who was a former President General of the Seamen and Waterfront Trade Union (SWWTU) .
He added: "When I was 30 years old I took on Eric Williams (former prime minister) and succeeded, You mean I would take him (Maharaj) on at 75? Come on! Steups. Waste of time!" He said the decision to fire him was the sequel to his questioning the Minister's directive to fire the five law firms currently used by the Port—MG Daly and Partners, Seenath Jairam, Kenneth Thompson, Hamel Smith and Co and Kelvin Ramkissoon—and hire instead "Jagdeo Singh and Subhas Panday".
Singh is member of Fortis Chambers, along with Larry Lalla, Randy Depoo and Derek Ali. Spencer said notwithstanding the Minister's denial, there was a lot of correspondence between himself and the Minister on this issue. He recalled yesterday that at one stage when he asked Maharaj for written confirmation of his directive, Maharaj told him not to expect a reply to this letter."So I wrote him another letter telling him that he told me not to expect a reply to that first letter," Spencer said.
In an exclusive article published on September 12, which quoted a September 2, Spencer in a strongly worded letter told Maharaj: "Minister, notwithstanding my preparedness to comply with all legitimate instructions issued by your good self, it would be entirely remiss of me, in fact bordering perilously on irresponsibility to fail to draw to your attention the potentially and substantially deleterious consequences of my placing before the Authority and hastening to implement your directives without further thought, due care and consideration...The initiative will surely assume the visage of a politically inspired, motivated and propelled witchhunt and especially when viewed against the backdrop of the proposed replacements."
Warning against political meddling, the letter urged the Minister to "consider the nature and potency of the response that would surely emanate from the wholesale removal of the Authority's panel of attorneys, particularly where such removal will not have been effected on the premise of any incompetence, dereliction of duty, lack of professionalism or any other negativity, real or imagined or contrived". Spencer said yesterday he would not be intimidated by any "two by four minister who feels that he can tell me to do things which are improper and that I am going to do it unchallenged".
"He probably thinks that in recommending my revocation he is hurting me but he isn't. He is just letting me go home and rest," Spencer quipped. "At 75 I don't care too damns what they want to do. When the God Lord bless you with 75 years to your credit, 75 good, honest and hardworking years, you don't take on little shrimps like Devant Maharaj. Waste of time!"Spencer said the Board had not been meeting since he and Maharaj were at loggerheads on this matter.
He said four Commissioners—(who he named)—have not been attending meetings, depriving the Board of a quorum and whenever they show up they move motions of adjournment on matters that should not be adjourned. Spencer said the issue of the legal briefs was not the only point of contention between himself and Maharaj. He said the Minister had been using certain board members to go to senior managers demanding information such as how many vacant positions there were, when were they filled, how many were still to be filled, how many were on contract and what salary the persons were being paid.
"The sort of information should be obtained from the Chairman, Secretary or General Manager/CEO," Spencer said."And it was being done in such an unfettered manner- with people saying 'the minister want this...and that...and he want it by Friday'. And it was all in emails," he said.Spencer said, however, "the 'S' hit the fan when the Minister took "the big bite" of instructing the board to fire wholesale the panel of attorneys.
"By which time he (Maharaj) was calling me the following morning, demanding that I expedite this directive, right away." And in another Sunday Express exclusive published on September 12, which quoted Port Authority Board Minute 671/11 of August 25, director Jalim Ramnarine said he had been directed by the Transport Minister to convey the Minister's instructions for the "immediate termination of all legal briefs" and the reassignment of work to the Fortis Chambers and Subhas Panday and Co.
Spencer who served as General Manager of the Port Authority between 1992 and 1997, said he had too much experience as a senior public servant to tell a Minister 'no' rightaway."But you tell him in due course why you can't do it and that if he would clear that situation for you, then you can do it".
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