By Clint Chan Tack, www.newsday.co.tt

PLANNING MINISTER Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said secret talks between "a maverick group of doctors" and the former UNC government undermined the Public Services Association (PSA) and led to a $40 million backpay agreement being reached five days before the December 11, 2001 elections. Addressing a news conference at his Central Bank Towers office, Dr Rowley quoted from a Cabinet note of March 15, 2002 which explained how the PNM Government had to source funds to pay doctors' salaries after it came to office on December 24, 2001. Rowley said: "The issues surrounding the ground rules were pertinent as the Ministry was fully cognisant that the doctors who were employed on contract with the RHAs (Regional Health Authorities) have individual rights to negotiate their contracts, and not collective rights. However in order to avert a crisis in the health sector and in recognition of the fact that the contract doctors clearly opted to appoint the PSA as their agent in the negotiations, the RHAs agreed to engage in the joint negotiations."

"The ground rules were that the PSA were negotiating for doctors. A group of doctors bypassed the PSA and got access to the Cabinet by way of the Finance and General Purposes Committee (FGPC) of the Cabinet. That group of doctors, unknown to the PSA, which was engaged in negotiations with the Government, negotiated an agreement for doctors. However the leader of that grouping had no locus standi to sign the agreement. For the agreement to come into force, the PSA had to come in. It is at that stage, when the agreement was struck by this group of maverick doctors with the Cabinet, to put it into force, it was only then the PSA was brought into the picture as a fait accompli, saying look we have negotiated this, you have to sign this." Documents supplied to Newsday showed Drs Colin Furlonge, Philip Ayoung Chee and Angelo Fortune were members of the PSA's medical arm in 2001, and the trio currently hold top executive posts in the Medical Professionals Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT).

Rowley said this caused a split in the PSA and the birth of MPATT. "For all practical purposes, MPATT had already been negotiating for doctors, which is the point I made in the Parliament and they carried on with that situation now, looking for recognition," the Minister added. He said while the agreement covered the period January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2002, no provisions were made in the 2000-2001 or 2001-2002 Budgets to pay doctors' salaries. "There was no money for this, but they signed an agreement on December 6, 2001, incurring this liability and to discharge it, the new Cabinet had to go to Parliament to get parliamentary approval to find this money. Since the Parliament wasn't functioning, the Cabinet had to instruct the RHAs to go and borrow money. That is how the doctors' crisis was solved," Rowley stated and referred to an April 25, 2002 Cabinet minute to show how this was done.

PSA President Jennifer Baptiste-Primus confirmed that Furlonge, Fortune and Ayoung-Chee were members of the PSA's medical arm which met with Cabinet's FGPC in December 2001 and were now top MPATT executives. Baptiste-Primus said she neither gave approval for their "presentation" nor was she aware of it. She explained that under the Association's rules, the PSA's leadership had the power to authorise such meetings. Baptiste-Primus said up to now "it is still a secret" to her what exactly transpired at that meeting. Former Finance Minister Gerald Yetming, who was FGPC chairman in 2001, said a group of doctors made "a presentation" to the Committee but no secret deal was made. Yetming said it was not uncommon for groups of public officers to make such presentations to the FGPC.