Lionel Michael says job offer was not serious

The country’s recently retired chief health inspector, Lionel Michael, is clarifying an earlier report about not being offered a job in the ministry of health. Yesterday, he said the minister of health, Molwyn Joseph, had in fact told him last year, that he, the minister, had asked Cabinet to offer him (Michael) a job as advisor to the minister for one year.
“The Minister of Health told me in late September 2017, in the presence of the permanent secretary, that he asked the Cabinet to allow me to stay on as his advisor for one solitary year. The Permanent Secretary was Mr. Walter Christopher,” Michael said in a statement. Minister Joseph had made this public in November 2017 on an OBSERVER Radio programme.
When OBSERVER media asked Michael last weekend why he did not accept the government’s job offer, Michael replied, “What job?” He was told that the minister’s statement in November and he said, “And you believe that?” When pressed for clarity yesterday, Michael said, “I did not for one moment [take] the minister’s offer serious, recognising all that had transpired since he took up minister of health… I [have] never seen anything in writing. The minister’s offer was verbal. Nothing was said about what advisory capacity I [would] retain.”
The former chief health inspector posited, “How could I stay on as advisor to the Honourable Molwyn Joseph when for three years the Minister did everything to frustrate my efforts and good name?” He said the Central Board of Health, which he headed for several years, was being marginalised during those three years from 2014 to 2017.
Michael did not go into further details, but said he continued to plan for his departure and decided to migrate to the British Virgin Islands, where he recently accepted the job as the chief environmental health officer. He said he’s enjoying the new job.