Two executive members of the Public Service Union (PSU) say that the Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration promoted into senior positions many of the public servants that Storm Gonsalves, son of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, complained about in an Aug. 19 Facebook post.
Storm Gonsalves said some public servants were “demigods” and were blocking government initiatives because of hatred for his father, to the detriment of the poor.
“Gentlemen and women in those positions, abusing your position, count yo days!” said the younger Gonsalves, who has no official government position and is not known to be a government employee.
Speaking on the PSU’s radio programme Monday night, General Secretary of the PSU, Shelly-Ann Alexander-Ross, questioned whether the government was sabotaging itself.
“Because if we look at how the positions are offered to people, especially those at the higher level, we all know what is happening as the court has ruled that.”
The High Court has ruled that the Gonsalves-led ULP administration has not been following the rules regarding the appointment of public servants to senior positions.
Among the practices that go against the rules is that the government has not been advertising certain vacancies, as the law demands.
“So if you’re accusing persons of actually sabotaging the government, you basically are the ones who put persons in certain positions. So you’re basically sabotaging yourself,” Alexander-Ross said.
She expressed disappointment in the response of public servants to Gonsalves’ post.
“I was really expecting a bigger feedback from public servants; … a bigger backlash … when you’ve been accused like that, knowing fully well that you’re a dedicated public servant and you uphold integrity and morals in your workplace, offering all those critical public services for the people.”
She expressed hope that people were “listening and … reading as to what is happening, and whenever the time comes for them to make informed decisions…”
Alexander-Ross was apparently referring to general elections, which are widely expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
In his post, Gonsalves suggested that the repair and construction of roads were delayed because contractors who are opposed to his government willfully delay execution after securing the contract.
However, Alexander-Ross said the public knows that public infrastructure contracts are awarded based on support for the government.
“So I have to conclude that the government, in itself, is sabotaging themselves,” she said, adding that the government is not maintaining public infrastructure and then awarding maintenance and construction contracts to its supporters.
“Maybe you’re sabotaging yourself by all the things that you’re putting in place, or the persons that you’re putting in strategic places to rule and to govern the work of the government. Maybe that’s what they should be asking themselves,” she said.
Meanwhile, speaking on the same programme, Gwenneth Baptiste-Stoddard, first vice president of the PSU, said she wanted the younger Gonsalves to say why he was not commenting on the number of young people being killed in SVG.
“Why he’s not talking about some of the same workers, … the contractors for the road, they work, and they still have not received monies?”
Baptiste-Stoddard echoed comments by the union’s president, Elroy Boucher, that the Unity Labour Party has been in office for almost 25 years and would have appointed most of the public servants who are in positions that could frustrate the work of the government.
“… people from the other side (the opposition), who were probably was there all the time, would have left. So what is he saying? What is he saying to us that they’re not performing and he wants to get rid of them?”
Baptiste-Stoddard asked whether Storm Gonsalves has ever worked in the public service.
“We ever heard about him working anywhere at all?” she said.