BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DIFFERENCES between the Government and Opposition Benches continued in Parliament yesterday (Dec, 11), but this time over the International Labour Organisation’s Report on the Basseterre High School’s (BHS) health issue.
Opposition Member of Parliament Senator Vincent Byron Jr., during his presentation, spoke to the BHS’s health issue and was referring to a report he claimed originated from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) when Senator Nigel Carty, on a point of order, objected to his statement.
Senator Carty, who holds the portfolio of Minister of Education, told the Honourable House that, unlike Byron’s insinuation, he was not aware of the ILO report until November; a Report that Byron claimed was in circulation five months earlier.
“The Member opposite speaks of a report that comes from the ILO; the reports or the document that I have seen in circulation beginning in the month of November. The first I thought of that report was the media, and that’s the problem we have in our society today, where people who have connections with certain politicians pursue a particular agenda for a particular political purpose.”
Carty said he had learnt of the report through the media in early November, after which he received a copy from the Labour Commissioner, adding that he knew nothing of one being sent on June 6.
“I am the Minister of Education! What reports purportedly coming from the ILO have a date of June 6 and in November, through the news media, I am learning of the existence of that report when I got a copy of that from the Labour Department’s Head, the Labour Commissioner, in November after having heard in the media of this report, where people on WINN FM had that before the Ministry of Labour had it, before the Permanent Secretary of Labour had it?”
The Education Minister also questioned the validity of the report from which Senator Byron claimed was authentic.
“Mr. Speaker, that purport report, it doesn’t have a letterhead of the ILO, it doesn’t have the signature of anybody from the ILO. How can we trust the report as coming from ILO when, in fact, it had nothing that is credible linking it to the ILO? I have never gotten a report anywhere from any international organisation that doesn’t come on a letterhead or has the signature of somebody in authority in that organisation. It very well could have been concocted Mr. Speaker! And it’s part and parcel of the operation of Members of the Opposition.”
Minister Carty maintained that the report was indeed written by a Member of the Opposition, asserting that “one of you wrote that Report. I am saying that to you”.
In response, Byron questioned Carty’s allegation and requested its withdrawal.
“Is it noting that I wrote it? Is it imputing some improper motive to me? Is that what he is doing? I would like you to withdraw that. Mr. Speaker, I would like him to withdraw it. I want you to withdraw it.”
After the Speaker’s intervention, Byron continued in his presentation and again insinuated that the Education Minister must have had knowledge of the report prior to early November.
“You see, Mr. Speaker, I hope that the nation at large is starting to hear certain things that we did not know about. Now we start to hear certain things that we did not know about. And now the Member opposite is giving a report by making points of order to me. He said he does not know of that report. And that is saying, if a health specialist comes here to go to the Basseterre High School to look and investigate, to meet with stakeholders, the Minister opposite has not said he did not meet with that person. The report that he said is circulating that he don’t know nothing about, that is what it sounds like, that he doesn’t really trust it. The report said they met with him. He was met with!”
That statement produced another response from the Education Minister, who maintained that the report could have originated from anybody other than the ILO.
“The author is very easy for them to know that I was met with? So the author of the report doesn’t have to be the person with whom I consulted or who sat in my office, it could be any persons!”
Reportedly, the ILO Report was submitted to the Ministry of Labour in June and was copied to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, management of the BHS, the St. Kitts Teachers’ Union and the BHS Parent Teacher Association.
It was however told to the media that management of the BHS was not in receipt of their copy until November 11.
The report, formulated by Dr. Yuka Ujita, an Occupational Safety and Health Specialist attached to the ILO, indicated that it was a public health issue “given the fact that students and children in the next-door nursery are affected”.
