27 June 2002
Mr William A M Courson
Executive Director
The Magnus Hirschfeld Centre
for Human Rights
Crosswicks House
P O Box 1974
Bloomfield, NJ 07003-1974
USA
Thank you for your letter of 20 June 2002 which I received on my return to the Office on 24 June. I note that you have addressed a virtually identical letter to Baroness Amos in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, and that you have subsequently written in similar terms to the British Ambassador in Washington. Given the seriousness of your complaint, I have had the matter thoroughly investigated by the Director of Human Resources and I have subsequently also personally reviewed the files. The facts available to me do not substantiate the claims made to you about the person in question, or about the official policy guidelines for HIV/AIDS in the work place in the BVI Public Service.
As far as the latter is concerned, in May 1993, the BVI Government introduced policy guidelines for the Public Service entitled “HIV/AIDS: in the work place”. I am arranging for a copy to be sent to you to re-assure you that the BVI does have a policy in place, and that the case of any officer with HIV/AIDS in the BVI Public Service should be dealt with in accordance with that policy. The BVI has recently recruited a highly experienced US citizen as Director of our Human Resources Department and one of his first actions was to review this policy document. He has found that the policy was quite advanced for its time, that it has stood the test of time and does not need much to bring it up to current international standards, other than a need for more education on the issues.
As far as the subject of your letter is concerned, the BVI Public Service has no records relating to the employment of Mr Purnell Christian. A Mr Purnell Thomas, however, was employed from July 1993 until November 1998 in an unestablished position in the Training Division. It is probable that he is the same person, but our records do not confirm that he was a graduate of Cornell University. Mr Thomas joined the BVI Public Service as a Clerical Assistant/Messenger direct from the BVI High School.
There are also some other significant differences to the reports which have been made to you:
· Mr Thomas resigned from the Public Service in November 1998 to take up employment in the private sector. In his letter of resignation dated 11 November 1998, Mr Thomas thanked the Chief Personnel Officer for providing the opportunity to work in the Training Division from which he had accumulated valuable experience and a wealth of knowledge;
· Mr Thomas was not engaged in a pensionable post and therefore there was no question of a requirement to repay any pension fund earnings. The file shows, however, that he was required to pay one months salary ($820.50) in lieu of notice to enable him to move quickly to his new job in the private sector;
· Mr Thomas re-applied for a position in the BVI Public Service in late 2001 and during an interview with the Deputy Governor, he reported that he only learned that he was HIV Positive after he had resigned from the Public Service;
· The former Chief Personnel Officer and his direct line manager, the Chief Training Officer, have confirmed that they had no knowledge of his medical condition at the time of his resignation and they have confirmed that he was not dismissed or required to resign.
I hope that the fore-going, and the BVI Public Service’s policy guidelines when received, will reassure you that the BVI and the BVI Public Service are sensitive to the needs of persons with HIV/AIDS. Mr Thomas did not know that he was HIV Positive when he resigned from the BVI Public Service and therefore the issue of dismissal never arose.
Your letter to me makes reference to an apparent breach of human rights, while your subsequent letter of 27 June to the British Ambassador in Washington is headed “Human rights violation involving the British Virgin Islands”. I hope that my reply will indicate to you that the facts of this case appear to have been misrepresented to you. The British Virgin Islands, like all countries in the Caribbean, is coming to terms with the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the community and there are a considerable number of education and public
awareness programmes underway at the present. The BVI Red Cross is one of the leading NGOs involved in the public education process and my office is currently funding 11 young Red Cross volunteers to visit Guyana as part of their work as HIV/AIDS counsellors to younger members of the community. The Government is fully committed to the public awareness programme.
F J Savage
GOVERNOR