CONCERNED employees and some political appointees are re-labelling the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Ministry of Family Affairs.

“It makes no sense complaining about any problem you might encounter in the Ministry against a member of ‘the team’,” said a source.

“From top to bottom in the Ministry, if you are perceived to be an outsider, they gang up against you.

“I would not be exaggerating if I also say that they even sabotage you, to ensure that your work is not up to standard.

“Check the Ministry’s offices in Canada, England, Miami and elsewhere, and even here in Trinidad and you will understand what I am talking about.”

She continued: “Take for instance an incident in TnT High Commission in Canada recently where a senior employee seemed to be the person who set up a situation which caused severe embarrassment to the whole country.

“And it had to do with a family situation.

PM PATRICK
MANNING

Foreign Affairs
Minister
KNOWLSON GIFT

“Because certain people couldn’t get their way, they were prepared to carry the entire country down with them.

“In other Embassies, the tail is literally waging the dog because some public servants feel they must either continue to have their way or the senior person appointed over them will feel their wrath.

“Some of the public servants don’t care an iota about TnT; they have an agenda and that is all they care about.

“In one foreign embassy, despite prior arrangements, the senior public servants refused to allow a car to be used to carry other employees to a funeral for a long-standing junior employee.

“A political appointee was also sabotaged to the extent that he was short-paid and most of the conditions of his employment due to him and his family were deliberately held back.

“In both instances, it was sabotage plain and simple.

“Here in Trinidad, a senior official is having problems because he is perceived to be an ‘outsider’.

“The time has come for the Minister of Foreign Affairs Knowlson Gift to put everything aside and launch an investigation into what is happening at some missions.

“He must pay close attention to some of the complaints that continue to fall on deaf ears.

“Gift must forget that he once worked in the Ministry and take an independent approach to the complaints.

“He is warned that if he doesn’t listen, some of us are threatening to go straight to his boss -- Prime Minister Manning.”