The Tribune

WHILE FORMER National Insurance Board chairman Gregory Moss was busy drafting a letter to justify his arbitrary dismissal of Alegernon Cargill as Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIB, a rather inconvenient letter arrived from Geneva notifying NIB that Mr Cargill was to receive global recognition for an outstanding plan he had introduced at NIB.

While the supposedly “confidential” letter from Mr Moss to his Minister Shane Gibson was conveniently leaked to the press and published on a website, the letter of commendation was on its way from Geneva.

However, what is interesting is that the information contained in the International Social Security Association (ISSA) letter written by ISSA’s secretary general has never seen the light of day in the Bahamas. In that letter Secretary General Hans-Horst Konkolewsky informed Mr Cargill that he was to receive special recognition at ISSA’s Good Practices Award of the Americas banquet to be held in Lima, Peru, in December. He was invited to attend and give a “keynote speech” on his Balance Score Card, which was designed to measure productivity at NIB. Mr Cargill had submitted it to the ISSA Best Practices Award committee for consideration.

The ISSA letter was dated November 5, 2012, the “leaked” Moss letter was dated November 8 — three days later. Because of the route that the Moss letter took to reach the public, The Tribune at the time could find no one who believed that the “leak” was not deliberate. It was felt at the time that it was done to destroy Mr Cargill’s public reputation. However, in their wildest dreams, the plotters obviously did not consider that Mr Cargill would have the courage to fight back. But courage he had, and the author of the letter now has to justify his allegations in the Supreme Court.

When Mr Cargill was employed as Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIB in October, 2008, he devised what he called a Balanced Score Card, designed to increase and measure productivity. When NIB was invited earlier that year to submit their best practices for the competition, Mr Cargill submitted his Balanced Score Card. At the time NIB was informed — in July last year — of the banquet and Director Cargill was given permission to attend and represent the Bahamas.

However, on Tuesday, November 6 at 10:06 am an e-mail was sent from Minister Shane Gibson to Board Chairman, Gregory Moss, and copied to Cecile Bethel and Algernon Cargill.

As a result Gregory Moss sent an e-mail to Mrs Bethel informing her as follows:

“The Minister and I have spoken and agree that the request by Director Cargill for NIB to fund his attendance at the upcoming Peru conference should not be approved.“

“The same is to apply to any other party that wishes to attend that conference, or any other conference, on behalf of NIB until further notice.

“By copy of this email I am so advising Director Cargill.

GKM”

And that’s the cold way that these boys do business. Not even the courtesy of meeting with Mr Cargill to inform him of the executive decision. Obviously Mr Moss could not plead insufficient funds for the trip as he had ordered that an executive office be decorated for him at NIB in a style befitting a minister, coupled with his belief that he should have a chauffeur, and the use of an executive credit card. If this behaviour is any yardstick, obviously there was no shortage of the people’s money to be spent.

It was left to Mr Cargill to decline the ISSA invitation to attend and give a keynote address. There was no representative from the Bahamas to receive the award. It is expected that it will be sent by post. So far ISSA has been given no explanation for such boorish behaviour.

The Gibson-Moss team obviously decided to keep the Geneva announcement of such a prestigious award for the Bahamas a state secret. No release was sent to the press, and nothing was “leaked” through their own press channels as was the Moss letter.

The following is the content of the November 5, 2012 letter from ISSA’s secretary general on the results of the competition for the ISSA Good Practice Award for the Americas 2012.

“Dear Mr Cargill,

“I am writing to inform you of the outcome of the competition for the ISSA Good Practice Award for the Americas 2012.

“The independent, international Jury met in mid-October to decide on the Award Winner, the Certificate of Merit with Special Mention as well as the Certificate of Merit among the 58 entries from 18 members in 10 countries from the region.

“I am pleased to inform you that the Jury awarded a Certificate of Merit to the good practice submitted by your organisation, entitled Balanced Scorecard.

“I should be grateful if you would keep this information confidential and not disclose it before the Award ceremony at which the Award, the Certification of Merit with Special Mention and the Certificates of Merit will be presented.

“The Award ceremony will take place on 5 December during the welcome dinner held on the occasion of the Regional Social Security Forum, 5 to 7 December 2012, in Lima, Peru. I very much hope that you will be able to attend this event so that the ISSA president may personally present the Certificate of Merit at the ceremony. More information about the precise arrangements for the ceremony will be sent nearer the time.

“The submission of the Award winner and all other qualifying good practices will be posted in the four ISSA working languages on the Good Practice database on the ISSA Web portal (www.issa.int) as of 5 December 2012.

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you and the entire staff of the National Insurance Board for the achievement of your organisation to being awarded a Certificate of Merit and look forward to seeing you in Lima.”

Signed: Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, Secretary General.

The withholding of this achievement is scandalous. It is seldom that Bahamians receive such recognition for achievement and so it is a shame that leaders — for their own selfish ends —would deny them their moment of glory.