CMC Pays Over 56K in Consultant Fees

Details

Latest

Monday, 25 February 2013 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St. John's - On the heels of continued cries for a stable cash inflow and repeated challenges in staff efficiency, the Central Marketing Corporation (CMC) has managed to sift over $56,000 out of its coffers to cover consultant fees.

Caribarena’s sources within CMC have revealed details of the Corporation’s expense account between December 2011 and June 2012, where a $56,000 consultant fee sits comfortably beneath a $5,000 advertising bill and a $17,000 security tab.

The consultant was said to have advised the corporation on matters relating to human resource development over a six-month period. And the individual has since been elevated to the full-time post of human resource officer within CMC with a fixed monthly wage of around $5000.

On top of that, just some weeks ago, the Antigua and Barbuda Free Trade Union (ABFTU) found itself at loggerheads with CMC’s management for sacking two young female cashiers on the grounds that there was no money to keep them on a full-time basis. These young women, one of whom is a mother, earned $318.75 per week for eight-hour days.

This decision was fortified last Friday at a hearing at the Labour Department. In attendance was Dalma Hill, in the capacity of CMC general manager. His presence, despite his resignation on February 15, was acknowledged by meeting chairman Pascal Kentish, despite contentions by the labour union.

In this case, CMC said that neither young woman was ever employed on a full-time basis, having not been given a contract, and that it was merely an oversight of management to seek to have the two regularized.

On the matter of the human resource officer’s appointment, nothing of the post was mentioned in Hill’s demitting report to the board of directors, and reports have indicated that an active investigation is underway at the board level to ascertain the qualifications of the individual.

“When you leaving these positions (managing director) you acknowledge your human resource manager who would have played a key role in your personnel management,” said ABFTU General Secretary Stafford Joseph.

He too has joined in pointing out that the individual in question was brought in to overstep others already in the Corporation, who would have acted as HR officer in the past. These individuals continue to work at CMC in other positions without a salary change.

“This means they have money. If you can take on someone and keep them on above someone else, by easing them out, then it means you have money,” Joseph said.

• < Prev
• Next >