Duke’s offer to resign

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PSA President Watson Duke on Monday offered his resignation to the Conference of Delegates of the PSA effective December 31, 2021.

Yesterday former PSA President Jennifer Baptiste-Primus questioned the reason for the December 31st date saying the resignation should have been with immediate effect.

The offer of resignation letter itself leaves room open to question Duke’s real intent. According to Duke, his presidency began in 2009 when public officers had no access to HDC homes, a poor health plan, no job security, small salaries, and was being exploited by politicians.

It was under his watch Duke said that he was able to “stop the destruction of the Civil Service by halting the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority, Passport Authority, Forestry Authority, and Licensing Authority.”

Duke spoke in glowing terms of his tenure as President saying it was he who placed “in excess of $5 billion in workers pockets based on salary increases, allowances etc.”

One may well wonder what was Duke’s real intent in listing what he said were his achievements as President even as he said he had started a job evaluation for over 1,500 different categories of jobs, which is 25 per cent complete.

His success in the political arena according to Duke had allowed public officers to enter discussions in the boardroom at the level of governance.

Duke is insistent that the PSA requires a political solution to its political problems, those are threefold, nine years without salary increases, failure to fill vacancies, and failure to adjust allowances.

Once his resignation offer is accepted he said he will create a political solution to fix the problems.

Duke held out the hope that his resignation would be accepted.

One hopes that this resignation offer is not just theatrics on Duke’s part. As Deputy Chief Secretary of the THA, the body charged with creating policy and managing the affairs of Tobago, Duke must keep his focus on the work at hand. His young deputy is now Chief Secretary and the Progressive Democratic Patriots which he leads needs to ensure that they meet their promises and commitments to the people of Tobago.

The distractions which the country has grown accustomed to with Watson Duke must not be allowed to hamper the work of the Farlel Augustine-led THA.

Duke cannot have one foot in the PSA and the other in the THA. The offer of resignation coming as it did within days of an ultimatum from the Chief Secretary who gave him three months to resign from the PSA, must not be another ploy by Duke.

The Conference of Delegates is due to meet next Tuesday to discuss the Offer of resignation and the filling of the vacant position with effect from January 1st, 2022.

One hopes that the Conference of Delegates will accept the resignation when they meet next week without any hiccups and that the democratic process in the PSA to elect a replacement would be followed to the law of the party’s constitution and that Duke will relinquish his ties and focus his attention on the THA, which the PDP leads with a commanding majority.

To do anything else would just be unfair to the people of Tobago, who expected much from the PDP and who are looking with optimism to leadership that puts them first.