HOW can the same job be advertised with two different compensation packages?
That’s what Dr Jerome Walcott wants the management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to explain over the hiring of its new director of medical services.
Speaking on Sunday at the St George South Constituency Branch of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) at the Ellerton Primary School in support of candidate Dwight Sutherland, Walcott charged the post had been advertised locally with a salary of $130 000 a year, while the holder would now be paid $150 000.
He said the director would get a 35 per cent non-practising allowance, a $5 000 a month rental allowance and 12 weeks’ vacation a year.
Other consultants get a 30 per cent non-practising allowance, no rental allowance and six weeks leave a year.
“This officer stands to be paid $23 000 a month, earning more than the chief executive officer at $21 000 a month,” Walcott charged.
What was advertised locally is different from what was offered him and the QEH needs to explain this.
The Christ Church South candidate also expressed concern over the cost overruns on the electrical upgrade of the hospital.
He said the project was scheduled to be completed last year, and the original budget of $8.5 million had been surpassed by an additional $5 million voted for it in the last Estimates.
The money spent on it had now reached $18 million and was still climbing, Walcott said.
The surgeon said these matters along with the deterioration of the QEH’s services were continuing despite Government assigning Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner as Parliamentary Secretary with special and direct responsibility for the facility’s improvement
and redevelopment.
“And still not a word on the future of the QEH,” Walcott argued. (SP)
