The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister Chester Cooper says he won’t publicly attack public servants following House Speaker Patricia Deveaux’s rebuke of National Emergency Management Agency director Captain Stephen Russell in Parliament last week.

However, Mr Cooper said he had no comment when he was asked if Speaker Deveaux should apologise to the NEMA official.

His comments came after Ms Deveaux, also Bamboo Town MP, lambasted Captain Russell from her chair in Parliament last week, telling him he needed a 9am to 5pm job after he did not respond in a way that was pleasing to her in the aftermath of a tornado in her constituency.

The Deputy Prime Minister was asked if senior Cabinet ministers have a view on whether her criticism was fair and whether it exposed legitimate holes or vacuums in the system.

The Exuma and Ragged Island MP told reporters he believes NEMA is an important arm of government and energy and efforts will focus on ensuring the agency is ready in the event of a major disaster.

“I and every other Cabinet minister would have a point of view on the issue,” Mr Cooper said at Cabinet yesterday. “I’m not going to personalise this. I’m not going to personally attack public servants in public. However, it is our obligation to ensure that the arms of government work and work efficiently.

“Our energy and our effort will be on ensuring that we are ready before the next natural disaster confronts us and we will ensure and provide support to Minister Laroda to ensure that he has all that he needs so that NEMA can spring into action very quickly so that we can have (a) strategic plan in order to manage search and recovery and a disaster response.”

“What I will conclude by saying is that the horrific experience in the management of Hurricane Dorian none of us want to live through that experience again and therefore we must ensure that right now we are putting in place the type of strategies and plans that are required to ensure the smooth management of operations when we do have a natural disaster confronting us.”

Meanwhile, Myles Laroda, the state minister with responsibility for NEMA, said he had spoken to the Speaker, adding that they share a very “cordial” relationship and they have “moved on from that”.

Yet, he stated he “can’t speak to the Speaker’s intention” when pressed on if Ms Deveaux did the right thing in the moment.

“I know her to be a good person and a kind hearted person. I am the minister responsible for NEMA. It was my job to respond to the concerns that were raised. We did that and it’s time to move on,” he said.

Official opposition leader Michael Pintard has said the House Speaker owes Captain Russell an apology. But Mr Laroda repeated that he can’t speak for the speaker. He also said that he was of the view that the matter ended with NEMA releasing a chronology of events relating to the tornado touch down.

As for Captain Russell, Mr Laroda said he continues to lead the agency.

“We have a good working relationship. There’s a lot of things going on with NEMA…we’re now in hurricane season and so we continue to work well together.”

Speaker Deveaux has said she does not see the need to apologise.