I do hope that your impartial newspaper will highlight this grave injustice that is being done to me by the management of Albion Estate.

I am a Field Foreman attached to Albion Estate and nearly one year ago I was instrumental in bringing to the attention of management a series of fraudulent and corrupt practices perpetrated by some junior and senior staff members in the Field Department of Albion Estate, leading to the dismissal of some of them. The theft mainly involved the entering of workers who did not work and the withdrawal of monies through the breach of standard payment procedures.
During that investigation, the persons whom I had reported  and gave evidences against tried their utmost to implicate me as well. The investigation exonerated me from any involvement in fraudulent practices. I thought that I have done well to deserve the praise and recognition of management.
After the investigation I was highly elated when I was elevated to act as Supervisor having been a dedicated Field Foreman for nearly 10 years. I was always overlooked for such promotion because I did not ‘fit in with the boys’. I was not part of the clique. After 10 months of acting in various gangs and performing above par, I thought that soon I would be confirmed in that position. But my expectation came to an abrupt and premature end when I was summoned by senior management and given a ‘SHOW CAUSE‘  letter which stated that I had ‘breached payment procedure’ since May 25,2012. This was during the same time that I had reported fraud to the estate’s management and Crop Production Manager.
During the said investigation, this matter came up and I told the investigators that I did not breach any payment procedure since my job was to identify the employees who came to the Pay Office and I did identify the employee in question and he did withdraw his pay. I was not the Paymaster. I identified the employee and the Paymaster paid him. So there was no question of a breach of payment procedure.
When I received this ‘show cause’ letter on April 4, 2013 I again submitted in a letter to management that I did not breach any ‘ payment procedure’.
Can you imagine that after one year and all that I went through to bring an end to corrupt and fraudulent practices in Guysuco, that I am being victimised by senior management? Where is the ‘whistle blower’ protection that was supposed to be given to me? No one in their right frame of mind will ever want to report fraudulent practices since that person will then become the target and eventually the victim.
There was a complete breakdown of the internal control systems with regard to certification and payment for work done and the corporation’s Internal Auditors could never have unearthed such fraudulent and corrupt practices without my patriotic input. Senior management failed also to implement the existing systems, For instance, check sheets were signed authorising payments without checking and verifying if the employee worked at all.
Lastly, the pronouncement of the estate manager at a recent staff meeting has made it clear that he is unwilling to look into fraudulent practices under his watch since he stated that he did not ’like people who report other people’.  Furthermore, when I questioned the Agriculture Manager about the rescinding of my acting appointment, he angrily pointed out that he has the “power to do as he pleases”. When I tried to have a meeting with the Estate Manager he not only verbally abused me, but he used the foulest of language in so doing.
I took this matter to Guysuco Head Ofiice and had a meeting with the Chief Human Resource Officer who promised to look into the matter.
I am calling on the CEO of Guysuco and the Honourable Minister of Agriculture to take a serious look at what is happening at Albion and to resolve my dilemma. If senior management is bent on taking the present trend then no matter how much our government is doing and the tremendous efforts of our minister in trying to make Guysuco profitable will be futile.  Mismanagement, fraud and corruption within our industry must cease. And I want this type of victimisation to cease.