Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. Photo Credit: MEDIA ONE
Governor Albert Bryan Jr. continued to take a hardline approach to underperformance in the government service, warning on Thursday night that there would be “changes all across the board.”
Continuing on from Tuesday’s re-election pledge to terminate underperforming Cabinet members, he said on Thursday that his administration would get rid of not only commissioners but directors, and people who perform “rank and file jobs.”
Because of their underperformance, Mr. Bryan said other workers have had to work twice as hard and his government has become a scapegoat for departmental failures.
“There’s too many people in the line that just get jumped over and gets a pass because it’s okay, it’s the governor’s fault," he said. “We’ve got to be accountable all the way down the line and all the way up. We’ve got to get it done, I only have four years [and] I’m not going to be gentle about it. It’s time for results,” he declared.
Speaking as a man with no elections left to lose, the Department of Property and Procurement was his first area of discussion, telling viewers on Thursday night’s Press Box program, the Season Three finale which featured V.I. Consortium Founder and Publisher Ernice Gilbert as guest interviewer, that he would “gut out procurement” because it takes too long to get projects off the ground. "Eighteen people got to sign something before it gets processed," Mr. Bryan protested.
He said the department has failed to provide tools to contractors in a timely manner which he believes has led, in part, to the delay of the new JFL hospital.
And, as for JFL’s operations, Mr. Bryan noted that some workers needed to go so that his government could “give the work to the people who can do the work well and in a short space of time."
“We got some people mixed in there that need to go. They’ve been trouble for a long time and I've to got take care of them, you bet your bottom dollar about that,” Mr. Bryan said.
Changes are also in line for the Government Employees’ Retirement System (GERS) board, the Public Finance Authority (PFA) and the hospital board.
He said members of these boards will no longer be allowed to operate as if they were law unto themselves and continue to disrupt operations because of their own motives.
“I have a job to do and I end up doing everybody's job,” … “It’s because of these ridiculous measures,” he said remarking that “Your job is to provide broad policy and guidance, not to nitpick every single thing they do,” he insisted.
As a result, he announced his intention to expand his executive order to give more autonomy to chief executive officers to extend their spending and signing limits.
Mr. Bryan also said that he would deal with his detractors whom he described as having malicious intent, declaring that “they gon’ get it."
