Is Peter Allen on his way out?

Peter Allen

Ministry of Health C.E.O. Peter Allen has come under serious and sustained fire recently. There have been public allegations made against him by parties in the Ministry of Health who claim that he is an incompetent and manipulative manager. He’s also been written up in audit reports on the misappropriation and misallocation of public funds in both the Southern and Central Region. Those reports claim that the financial irregularities and breaches of finance orders were possible because there were no controls in place, and the blame is put squarely in the lap of C.E.O. Allen. Today, PM Barrow admitted that with all that has been happening, there has been discussion on whether Allen should be removed, but he doesn’t feel it’s reached that point just yet.  

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“The C.E.O. in the Ministry of Health has been having a warm time of it recently. I think that is an understatement and you might well make the case, at what point does a government say, look, this is too much heat and somebody—in this case the C.E.O.—has to be sacrificed, has to go. Legitimate question and it is a question that we have to ask ourselves; it is a question I have asked myself. I honestly believe that while C.E.O. Allen has made some mistakes—because we all do—I honestly believe he is a good man and true. I think that he is honest; I think that he has a good handle conceptually on the ministry. I think that while he can’t be responsible for every operational aspect of as large a ministry as that is, nevertheless, there’s been some slips. And what you are talking about, we can’t hold him responsible for what people out in far-flung areas do on a day to day operational basis. But I was told that the C.E.O. had said he had particular faith in an individual who it now turns out is most likely guilty of a great deal of irregularity to put it mildly.”

Reporter

“He said that having known of the specific irregularities…”

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

Dean Barrow

“I don’t know, I don’t know. That’s not my understanding. But in any event…”

Reporter

“Like you, I noh lie.”

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“But you understand that for purposes of this exercise, I have to go by what I know and conceding that that was a misstep. But examining this thing as closely as I can, I do not feel that again the bill of indictment that the public the media has presented against Peter Allen reaches the point where I, as the person ultimately responsible for C.E.O.s, can say that Peter Allen ought to go.”