PSU fights employee’s dismissal

The Public Service Union is going to bat for a civil servant it claims was wrongfully dismissed. In July Dr. Bertie Chimilio was suspended from his post with the Belize Agricultural Health Authority, BAHA, after allegations of financial impropriety while working at the Ministry of Agriculture’s veterinary clinic. On Monday Chimilio received a letter from BAHA saying that he was terminated. According to PSU Secretary General Hubert Enriquez, BAHA did not have the right to discipline a public officer since Chimilio was only seconded to the post with BAHA and thus could only be dismissed by the Public Service Commission. He further pointed out that police had investigated the matter and to date no charges have been brought against Chimilio. Not so says PSC Director Justin Palacio. Palacio says that in May Chimilio and other public officers were legally transferred to BAHA, a statutory body, and as such, Chimilio is no longer a public officer. He adds that in accordance with the act creating BAHA, that body has the full power to hire and fire its staff. The problem with this explanation, says the PSU’s Enriquez, is that Chimilio and others were never given a choice in the matter and were forcibly transferred to the newly created authority. What should have happened, he says, is that the officers should have been retired by government and then rehired by BAHA. Enriquez says that the matter will have to be taken to court, but declined to say when the union would take action. For his part BAHA’s top man, Dr. Mike Tewes, told News 5 that the whole matter was being blown out of proportion and declined to comment for the record.