London on job for Anselm: THA won’t bow to public pressure
Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly Orville London says the appointment of Dr Anselm London as senior consultant to the current Secretary of Finance and Enterprise Development Joel Jack at a salary of $60,000 was not approved before it was made public.
London said the executive council had not decided on the appointment and deferred the matter until all pertinent information was made available to them. However he said the executive of the THA would not bow to public pressure and make a rushed decision.
London was speaking at Wednesday’s post-executive council news conference. He said the executive council is comfortable with the process of the appointment and thinks the public debate on the issue is healthy and he stressed that the executive will not be influenced by public pressure.
“The important thing, however, is that we in the executive council cannot and should not be influenced by public pressure… we should note and be informed by what the public has said, but in the final analysis the decision you make has to be based on the information before you, the advice that you get and the circumstances with which you have to deal with and that is how any responsible executive council or cabinet would conduct itself,” London said.
He revealed that no final decision was made as the matter was again deferred since there was no consensus. He said the first note about Dr London’s employment as a senior consultant was first taken to the executive council by the Secretary of Finance Joel Jack, but there are many issues that need to be resolved before the final decision is made.
London said he was not prepared to undermine the confidentiality of the process within the THA and that when a decision is made, a full report would be done as to why such course was taken.-