API head sent on leave over ‘genuine error with malicious intent’

The acting Director of the Agency for Public Information (API), Nadia Slater, has been sent on leave, days after saying she made “a genuine error with malicious intent” on Tuesday when she referred to Ralph Gonsalves as prime minister, five months after he was voted out of office.

The initial error was made in an unsigned email that the API sent to the media on Tuesday, inviting journalists to a press conference by Prime Minister Godwin Friday.

However, in the email, the API referred to Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves as prime minister, a post he held for almost 25 years from March 2001 to Nov. 27, 2025.

The agency then sent a second email asking that the initial correspondence be disregarded.

“The Agency sincerely apologises for the typing error in the previous email and wishes to indicate that it was a genuine error with malicious intent,” Slater said in her email.

The API later sent a third correspondence, a press release-style apology, saying it wanted to “address an error contained in an email circulated to members of the media earlier today, in which an incorrect reference was made of (sic) the former Prime Minister.

“We sincerely apologise for this mistake. The error was purely inadvertent and resulted from an administrative oversight during the preparation of the correspondence. There was NO disrespect, political motive, or malicious intent whatsoever,” the API said.

The “comedy of errors” was widely commented on on social media after iWitness News and at least one other media outlet reported on it.

iWitness News is not aware of any comment by the Godwin Friday New Democratic Party (NDP) government on the errors.

However, multiple sources have confirmed to iWitness News that Slater has been sent on leave, with one source saying that she might not return to the API under the NDP administration.

This suggests that Slater, a public servant, will be assigned to an equivalent-level post in the Public Service.

Meanwhile, one source familiar with the matter told iWitness News that it was unbelievable that the NDP government kept Slater at the helm of the API for so long after the election.

“It is not just that she campaigned openly for the Unity Labour Party during the 2025 election. Her actions after the election showed a particular disdain for the new government, even as she was head of the agency responsible for portraying the government in a positive light,” said the source, who asked for anonymity to speak freely to the media without authorisation.

“If the information arm of the NDP government had done their homework, they would have quickly found out that the ULP government skipped over Nadia three times, bringing in people from outside to head API rather than make her the director,” the source said.

“These people include Sean Rose, who began supporting the ULP after his failed bid to become the NDP’s candidate in South Central Windward in the 2020 general election.

“Nadia was skipped over at least three times under a government that she supported but the NDP government kept her in the sensitive communication post for five months after they won,” the source said.