By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Ask the Minister of Health, Valasi Tafito, about the whereabouts of the Director General, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri and the answer is he is on holiday leave.
Ask if his leave has anything to do with an investigation by the Public Service Commission that included taking the Director General’s computer hard drive from his office and the Minister said no.
Ask if the Director General is returning after his leave and the answer is yes.
Ask the Public Service Commission about their investigation into the purchase of a CT Scanner for the Ministry of Health and the media splashed off about the process starting already to recruit a new CEO for the Ministry.
The scanner is already in the country waiting to be installed.
But all this skirting around about the future of the Director General with the Ministry has done more to confuse rather than clarify what is really going on.
Leausa maybe relaxing over a cold drink but the swirling publicity about his absence from work has turned into muddled contradictions of what is said and what is ‘un-said’.
The known facts so far is the CEO contract for the Director General has only a few weeks left to run and he still has unused leave he is now taking.
Among the questions the Minister and the PSC appear to be ‘pussy-footing around’ is what really sparked this investigation and why blow it up now?
The Director General is finishing up his working contract and has the right to re-apply. Is he going to re-apply?
What are his chances, if any, of getting a contract renewal with the PSC investigation dangling on his head that he will have to defend against?
What will happen to the investigation if Leausa is unable to retain his CEO job? Does it end there? If it does will that not smell of a deliberate setup to give him zero chances of a contract renewal?
Was there any wrong doing involved in the procuring of a CT Scanner for the Ministry or will that have to wait for the findings of the PSC investigation?
What about the removal of the hard drive from the Director General’s Office? What about the possible breach of patient confidentiality if privileged information inside the hard drive leaked to the general public? Has it?
The media pursuit of the MoH missing Director General remains a work in progress and the mystery will be solved only until the missing pieces are in place.
Until then the general public will have to remain in a muddled state over where the Director General will end up. Is it going to be in or out of the MoH?
Stay tuned.