By Elesha George
Dr. Na-Ajele Williams-Buffonge has been reinstated to her higher position as acting principal of the Antigua State College (ASC), two years and seven months after she was forced to go on “special” administrative leave by the Public Service Commission (PSC) – the body that appointed her in December 2019.
Williams-Buffonge, who succeeded the then-principal Hyram Forde, had been working in the position for just 2 months when she received a letter in February 2020 claiming that she was to be placed on special leave due to an incident between her and the Minister on January 20th, 2020 where she allegedly was being accused of “insubordination” to the Minister of Education.
The PSC demoted her to her previous position as head of the Liberal Arts Department.
It is alleged that Education Minister Michael Browne and Williams-Buffonge had been at loggerheads before her appointment. That contention advanced in January 2020 when a telephone call between the Minister and Williams-Buffonge took place. Sources shared that the Minister contacted Williams-Buffonge about a minute that she had written, and that he wanted it withdrawn, or he would sue her. The incident ultimately led to an investigation by a special committee.
She then took the Public Service Commission to court, with the case making it all the way to the High Court where the Commission eventually agreed to settle the matter. The judgement was made on September 21, 2022.
Her lawyer, Justin Simon QC told Observer that the commission did not defend the matter and in response, he filed a consent order on behalf of his client. He shared that the PSC’s Counsel – the Deputy Solicitor General – “conceded” that the method in which the disciplinary hearing was held was “wrong” and agreed to a settlement.
Simon argued that his client had not been given an opportunity to hear what her accusers had to say during the hearing, which would have allowed him to cross-examine them in court.
As part of the order, the PSC is obligated to reinstate Williams-Buffonge and to make retroactive payment from the day she was suspended up until the 30th of September. The amount is to be paid by October 30, 2022.
But before that agreement could be reached, Simon said the Commission shared its intention to retry the case, and requested that it be part of the consent order.
“They wanted us to agree to them doing a new trial and I told them we’re not agreeing to that,” he remarked, while noting their option to request a new trial at their own behest.
In an attempt to get a comment on Williams-Buffonge’s reinstatement, Observer reached out to former Education Minister Browne and the current Education Minister Daryl Matthew via phone, but they were both unreachable.
Browne, who now has responsibility for the Ministry of Creative Industries and Innovation had encountered a similar situation in July 2014 with D Gisele Isaac, the then-Executive Secretary of the Board of Education, whom he had asked to provide information pertaining to the salaries of Board of Education employees.
The former Executive Secretary argued that the Education Minister did not have the right to instruct her, as he claimed; that Natural Justice was not followed in that she was not allowed a hearing in the investigation that followed her suspension.
Neither the then-Managers nor Isaac apparently felt comfortable with providing such confidential information to the Minister’s secretariat, and Isaac was subsequently described as being insubordinate and was later suspended from her position.
On her return to work one month later, she was prevented from entering her office, and later found out that she’d been “constructively dismissed” from the position she’d held since 2001.
Six years later in December 2021, the Industrial Court ruled in her favour and ordered the Board of Education to pay more than a quarter of a million dollars to her, including the cost of her attorney’s fees. She was also represented by Attorney Simon.