Reverend Andrew Doughty has resigned as chairman National Drug Commission after slamming Government for lack of consultation over its decision to merge the organisation with the Health Ministry.

Rev. Doughty said two other board members Fiona Luck and Kehinde George had also stepped down in protest.

He told : ?Government made a decision to incorporate the NDC into the Ministry. It was a decision I didn?t agree with, I think it?s a backward measure.

?I felt it had been made in haste and announced in haste and I wasn?t able to implement it. I have no idea what prompted their decision, the chairman of the board or the board itself wasn?t included in the plan or consulted in anyway.

?The decision to incorporate the NDC came as a surprise. There was minimal consultation in the decision,? Rev. Doughty explained. ?I came back from holiday in the first week in September and they told me of the decision. The board wrote in September to clarify what this meant but we never had a response.?

He said it was debatable whether NDC CEO Don Philip had been properly informed about the plan. Rev. Doughty said he had not been invited to the press conference when Health Minister Patrice Minors announced the move in the start of November and resigned at the board meeting at the end of that month.

Ms Minors said merging the NDC which had a budget of $2,857,751 this year, would cut down on waste and inefficiency but all he NDC staff will remain in place at the same office on Parliament Street.

Rev. Doughty has been temporarily replaced by Roderic Pearman who he described as a ?safe pair of hands? with plenty of experience who could end up taking the post for a longer term.

He said the NDC had been a political football even though it was set up more than ten years ago to offer a non-partisan approach to the handling of the island?s drug problem.

Rev. Doughty, who was made chairman of the NDC in March 2003 said the organisation had made great strides recently after being short staffed in recent times. ?We had a full complement of staff and were getting down to the work.?

The NDC?s role was to initiate treatment and prevention programmes and to monitor them and carry out research, said Rev. Doughty.

Politicians and commentators had attacked the body as being an expensive white elephant but Rev. Doughty said most of its money had been distributed to agencies which had reacted when there was a shortfall when charity funders the Council Partners Charitable Trust (CPCT) disbanded.

But he said Government had not filled in the cash void.

?The NDC took a hit from numerous critics about budgets. I think we were caught between a rock and a hard place. We had been directed by the ministry to initiate a new women?s treatment centre.?

But he said there was no extra cash to fund that, saying: ?We were given exactly the same grant.?

Some critics had condemned the NDC for pointless research and advertising campaigns which would only preach to the converted but Rev. Doughty said research and prevention where vital and if done properly could reduce the massive bill for treatment.

He said the highly researched Communities That Care programme, which some have felt is excessively academic, would help identify risks in individual communities. Asked if the move into Government would make it absolutely clear where accountability lay in drug prevention Rev Doughty said the independent voice of the NDC board was necessary.

?I think the decision takes it into party politics. My hope is there will be necessary funds,? said Rev. Doughty who is Rector of St. Mary?s Anglican Church in Warwick. ?I believe the NDC has done a good job over its ten year history, the achievements were clear. I believe it was beginning to function very well.?

He praised the staff and board and added: ?The struggle is going on. We have to do it together, if we don?t we will all lose.?

Health Minister Patrice Minors could not be reached for comment.