Ousted HRC head accuses Ministers of interference
The ousted head’s allegations are supported by a host of court affidavits and e-mail records.
His claim is that a cadre of Government Ministers and senior civil servants attempted to bully both him and the United Bermuda Party MP into a course of action which would have affected the outcome of a discrimination complaint local businessman Harold Darrell had initiated against the Bank of Bermuda. That case is still ongoing seven years after it was first filed.
According to Mr. Wilson, Neville Darrell’s dismissal was preceded by a heated meeting with former Human Affairs Minister Terry Lister.
That tirade, which allegedly brought Mr. Darrell close to tears, apparently saw Mr. Lister scold him “for entertaining the Harold Darrell complaint against the Bank of Bermuda” and warn there were certain cases he would have to ignore in his tenure at the Human Rights Commission, that at times he “would have to tear down the temple, and that on other occasions, (Mr. Darrell) would simply do nothing”.
Mr. Wilson believes his own fall from the civil service was brought about by a targeted conspiracy involving former Human Affairs director Brenda Dale, former chairman of the Human Rights Commission Rod Attride Stirling, current Human Affairs director Myra Virgil and former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Community Affairs and Sport, Derick Binns.
He further alleges that former Community Affairs and Sport Minister Dale Butler was aware of what was happening but showed no support, despite unfair comments in the media from Mr. Attride Stirling which led to Mr. Wilson’s professional disgrace.
“I am now looking at the full picture, the way Neville Darrell was pushed out of the office when we had that first ministerial interference from Terry Lister.
“I’m looking at my situation — I was not dismissed for annual reports or the managing of any cases, I was dismissed for upholding the law with respect to how the Harold Darrell matter was handled.
“My demise wasn’t about late annual reports, it was because I stood my ground and resisted intrusions into my office, which enjoys independence in cases.”
Mr. Wilson claims his problems initiated with Mrs. Virgil, who had unsuccessfully applied for the role of executive officer in 2002 and was instead hired as an investigation officer for the Commission.
“Mrs. Virgil was disgruntled and never wanted to come under my authority,” he said. “Because she was a PhD candidate, she wanted me to unilaterally put her on a higher pay scale than the other investigation officer.
“She wanted me to unilaterally create a position for her as assistant executive officer and became rancid when I told her this could not be done. In short, she had an inflated ego and wanted to be catapulted to higher heights before doing her time.”
Mrs. Virgil left to run the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE).
Around the same time, Mrs. Dale was appointed director of the Department of Human Affairs. Effectively Mr. Wilson’s boss, the post was at times filled by Mrs. Virgil when Mrs. Dale was on leave.
A backlog of work in his office led Mr. Wilson to ask for additional administrative support. As proof of need, he cited evidence from several temps that the demands were too much for one person. His request was denied.
“The relationship between me and (Mrs. Dale) was bad, but only because I resisted her micro-management and bullying in my office. The relationship became worse when I found it necessary to seek help from her superior, Dr. Binns.”
The former HRC head said he received no support, only a pair of poor performance appraisals — “the first in my tenure” since assuming the responsibility of acting executive officer in 1999 and being made permanent head of the Commission in 2002 and the first in his entire “service with Government, which goes back to 1975 when I was a teacher”.
In a November 2005 letter to the Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Mr. Wilson made a formal complaint against Mrs. Dale’s behaviour.
“At this time, all I wish to say about these matters is that they are a kind which, in my view, amount to disrespect for me and my office and an attempt to discredit me before my staff — but all of which, I might add, seems to only take place when I am not in office,” he wrote.
“Recently, I was off the island on vacation leave. I learned that the Director had been in my office the first day of my leave. It is my information that the Director was inspecting or otherwise moving around my office, helping herself to information.
“I have repeatedly indicated to Mrs. Dale and the Permanent Secretary that, by Section 30 of the Human Rights Act 1981, I and all officers of the Commission are required by law to maintain confidentiality of the business of the Commission.
“There is a strict prohibition on this. Whilst I recognise that Mrs. Dale is my director, all of her predecessors have recognised and respected the fact that the director is not an officer of the Commission and does not have free (i.e., unescorted) and unfettered access to my office.”
Section 30 of the Act states: “Any person who hinders, obstructs, molests or interferes with the Commission or an officer of the Commission in the lawful exercise of a power or the lawful performance of a duty under this Act shall be guilty of an offence.”
Compounding his problems was his relationship with Mr. Attride Stirling.
“The chairman functioned differently to those I’d worked with before. Aside from the fact that he was very dictatorial, he had no rapport with my staff and was very offensive to my staff.
“Every day I was getting complaints from my staff about his approach, the fact that he was very rude.”
He addressed his concerns to Mr. Butler, under whose portfolio the HRC fell, and who happened to be a longstanding friend.
“I said, ‘I’ve been here a long time. I know my job. Things are not working between the chairman and me and the director and me’. I didn’t expect him to do anything about the director, because that’s a civil service position, but the chairman of the Commission is a political appointment.
“I told him that (Mr. Attride Stirling) was making my life a hell, that he didn’t have the respect for my staff and that he didn’t have my respect. I left him feeling quite encouraged. I expected him to do his due diligence and check.”
What happened, said Mr. Wilson, is that “Mr. Rod Attride-Stirling was re-appointed” and subsequently complained in the press that the annual reports were years’ behind.
“My office prepared 2002, 2003 and 2004 annual reports in the usual way with the usual format, which had been accepted by Cabinet for years before Mrs. Dale or Mr. Attride Stirling arrived.
“There were some statistical problems in the reporting which required auditing. I had no problem with that. To this day, the Minister has been fed untruths that the reports were not done. The truth is that the reports were done.
“The chairman has said that the reports were garbage. And I say if they were garbage then he insults the scrutiny and vetting of his own deputy (Mary Ann Scott), who was charged with approving these reports.
“The whole issue of reports is so insane when I have it on authority that other departments in Government are eight to ten years behind in reports.”
Mr. Wilson added that, according to a recent report by the Auditor General, the Bermuda College had failed to file annual reports since 1985.
“But I didn’t see anybody from the College being fired,” he said.
He reserved his greatest criticism for Mrs. Dale, who he said conducted herself in a manner that was “unprofessional, unlawful and certainly not becoming of a senior civil servant”.
“One, she ordered me not to attend boards of inquiry proceedings and it began with the Harold Darrell case,” he said.
“The second thing that she did was during the preliminary proceedings of the Harold Darrell board of inquiry.”
According to Mr. Wilson, there was confusion as to whether Mr. Darrell’s complaint was against the Bank of Bermuda or its board of directors or both.
“She was very angry that I put this matter before the Commission. During the meetings we had with the Commission to try and sort this out, Mary Ann said, ‘Listen, Mr. Harold Darrell was always including the bank as a respondent, not just the directors’.
“I knew that was true. But Mrs. Dale didn’t want that evidence and she didn’t want that to be communicated to Harold Darrell because this would have made it easy for Mr. Darrell to proceed at the hearing as he wanted to.
“She forced me to put selected transcript evidence before the Commission — she said I was to only put forward evidence that she approved. That had the effect of derailing the Commission.
“The third thing that she did was forbid me to have contact with Mr. Harold Darrell. This is a member of the public. He has a right to come to my office. But I still did not connect the dots and then, subsequently, I came to the conclusion that Mrs. Dale was attempting to effect a particular result in this case. She was forcing me to continually look over my shoulder.”
Mr. Wilson eventually faced an internal tribunal. “I ran a credible defence to all of the charges laid against me, but even I did not realise that nothing I said was going to make a difference because the Minister was at the centre of it,” he said.
The matter came to a head last July when Mr. Wilson was eventually faced with two options — resign or be dismissed.
“I told them that the only way I would take resignation is if they gave me a letter of recommendation going forward. I wanted to get my job back on track. I wanted to get back into employment.”
Three months after resigning, Mr. Wilson had failed to receive any letter of recommendation, and subsequently called the deal off.
“Forget it. You can call it dismissal or whatever you want but the deal now is off because you haven’t shown me good faith at all,” he said.
“I’ve done all I’ve had to do and every door has been shut in my face in terms of trying to get employment. Whenever I sent my dossier out the recommendation from Government was missing.
“There’s no reason for me to not tell the truth now. And if the truth be told, I believe that someone got to Mrs. Dale and caused her to interfere with this case in the three ways I’ve outlined. And I think that’s very serious. The public needs to know.”
Mr. Wilson added that one of the conditions of his resignation was that he not go to the Public Service Commission or take his employers to court.
And he said his superiors were shocked to learn that, because of an oversight, he had never signed the Official Secrets Act, and is therefore free to talk about his work as a civil servant.
Mr. Wilson’s concerns were backed up by Harold Darrell, who believes that officials are using delaying tactics to block his case from moving forward.
Referring to “protracted legal arguments”, Mr. Darrell said: “They’re just trying to confuse people with smoke and mirrors.”
