A monthly Government bulletin has been re-mailed to subscribers -- without a controversial tribute which prompted a recall.

And the woman who wrote the tribute on former Government veterinary trainee officer Susann Smith has attacked the decision to scratch it.

LeYoni Junos told The Royal Gazette the move "flew in the face'' of Premier Pamela Gordon's wishes.

"They threw my work away,'' she said.

The April edition of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries' Monthly Bulletin contained a page-and-a-half tribute to Dr. Smith when it first came out.

The new release contains a six-line farewell to Dr. Smith, stating: "We regret that Dr. Smith was unsuccessful in fulfilling the terms of her contract but wish her well in her future endeavours.'' The rest of the space is filed with an advertisement for the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo and an article by Botanical Gardens curator Sarah Vallis on Lamarck's Trema -- a small tree.

Ms Junos, former editor of the Bulletin -- and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries librarian -- has now spoken out about the matter for the first time.

Ms Junos -- who wrote the tribute to Dr. Smith -- has since left the department.

She explained that she was the editor of the Bulletin, making her responsible for mailing it out each month.

Department management pulled the April Bulletin and its tribute in June. About 1,500 copies -- printed at a cost of $1,300 -- were rounded up from the Post Office at the last minute while others were collected from department staff.

"They never spoke to me about why they pulled the bulletin,'' Ms Junos told The Royal Gazette .

"I was never told what happened, I was never taken to task, I was never told to reprint it, etcetera.

"They threw my work away. They flew in the face of what the Premier said and replaced it.'' Premier Pamela Gordon told the House of Assembly when the incident occurred in June: "There was nothing in the article that warranted it being pulled.'' Ms Junos continued: "But when the new bulletins for April arrived I was expected to reprint the address labels and mail them out. I refused to mail them.'' She revealed that the new Bulletin sat in the department for about a month because she refused to mail it.

"When I was asked to mail it out I refused out of principle over what they (management) had done and the way they had done it. They waited until I left on July 30 before they sent it out. It sat there for about six weeks because I refused to mail it.'' Ms Junos said she told Agriculture assistant director Kevin Monkman why she had refused to touch the new newsletters even though he had never spoken to her about why her original offering was pulled.

Ms Junos also refuted the reasons department management gave for pulling the bulletin.

At the time, Acting Permanent Secretary of the Environment John Barnes said the Bulletin was pulled because of "unauthorised content'' -- the lengthy tribute to Dr. Smith.

"We've had people who served here much longer than four years and no-one wrote a page-and-a-half tribute for them,'' he said.

However, Ms Junos provided a copy of the September, 1996, bulletin which contains a page and a half tribute to trainee Plant Protection Officer Claire Jessey.

She was appointed to the position on August 5 after working four summers as a summer student and was due to leave in October to pursue her education.

Ms Junos added that she had profiled some 35 staff members over the past five years and that she had edited the Bulletin for the past seven years.

And Mr. Monkman, who ordered the recall, said he called back the Bulletin because the article had not gone through the "proper editorial channels''.

But Ms Junos pointed out that she had not gone through these editorial channels for the six months before the article came out -- and none of those Bulletins were ever recalled.

She said Mr. Monkman told her later that the reason behind pulling the article was due to the fact that it might confuse the public, even though he also admitted to her that what was contained in it was all true.

The controversial tribute contained a precis of Dr. Smith's tenure and outlines her daily contributions to the Department, including the founding of the Tudor Farm Camp, the Prison Farm Poultry Project, and her efforts to help dairy farmers unite to form the Bermuda Dairy Association.

Dr. Smith's contract with Personnel Services was terminated in early April.

Bulletin remailed without tribute It emerged later that Dr. Smith -- who holds a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from Alabama's Tuskegee University -- failed on four occasions to pass the US-based National Licensing Board exams, understood to be a condition of her contract with Government.

Since then supporters have waged a public battle to have her reinstated, arguing that she has passed two of the three exams required for the US license and maintaining that the third part is not relevant to her job description.

Dr. Smith meanwhile has been licensed to practice in Jamaica, but remains on the Island.

Applicants are now being sought for the position of Government Veterinary Officer which was last held by Dr. Neil Burnie who retired in September of last year.