The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Technical and Vocational Institute is being accused of wrongful dismissal after making good on its warning and firing an employee of the IT department, citing him for breach of an internal policy on open communication.

At the end of January, a flyer was circulated on social media indicating there was a theft ring at BTVI, that an executive manager was involved and that two people were fired because of it. At that time, The Tribune reached out to BTVI’s chairman, Kevin Basden, who admitted there was an ongoing investigation into malfeasance at the tertiary institution. 

BTVI subsequently hired ICS Bahamas to conduct the investigation. A probe commenced to include identifying the person who generated the flyer. The employee of the IT department was requested to attend two meetings to be interviewed by the investigator. That employee was terminated in a document dated March 31, delivered to him over the past weekend.

A BTVI source said: “Well I hope they are prepared for a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. The burden of proof was placed upon BTVI and their investigator and they never showed the young man any proof. They just fired him saying they ‘believe’ he is the one who sent out the flyer. They never had a case because there was no evidence. It was not shown. They didn’t give this man who has children severance pay.

“. . .We are in the middle of a pandemic and you fire a man with no proof? That is nonsense. We are sure that at the end of the day, the courts will exonerate our colleague.”

Excerpts of the termination letter to the employee noted that BTVI believed him responsible for the creation of flyers “Human Resources Manager Mess at BTVI” and “Policy Prejudice BTVI”.

The letter also noted: “We honestly and reasonably believe that your actions constitute a major breach ie, gross misconduct and/or acting in a manner contrary to the fundamental interest of the Institution. Further, you owe a duty of care to the organisation. As a result of your actions, you are hereby summarily dismissed from BTVI.”

The letter noted that the employee’s breach was on three policies – personal use of BTVI’s property, open communication and distribution of printed material.

Contacted by The Tribune for comment yesterday, Mr Basden said that the matter is not one for the press.

“We wouldn’t discuss our personnel matters of this nature publicly,” Mr Basden said. “I can confirm that action has been taken and there is strong evidence as a result of an investigation, but we are not going to get into play by play of what was said or not said. We are not going to deal with that in the press, but we stand by our position in the action that was taken.”

The Tribune obtained the audio files of the second of the said meetings where the accused employee’s attorney, Genika Basden, could be heard continually asking the investigator for proof of his claims which he said he had.

Several people were at the meeting, including the investigator, BTVI officials and attorneys for the accused - Ms Basden and Bjorn Ferguson.

In the meeting, Ms Basden told the investigator he had to show proof of the allegations so her client could defend himself.

“You can tell me you have a video with me shooting somebody, but you have to show that video with me shooting somebody,” she said.

“You cannot make an allegation without proof. You say you are using evidence so you need to provide us with this evidence so he can see it and defend himself against this evidence. That is the process of natural justice. That is due process.”

The investigator insisted he had proof but declined to show it as he said he was still investigating the matter.

“I can show him what I have now, but I cannot give him anything because the investigation is still in progress,” the investigator responded. “No. I will withhold that.”

According to The Tribune’s source the accused employee and his legal team were never shown the proof that the investigator said he had.