Dear Editors,
THE attention of the Ministry of Finance has been drawn to a letter in the Kaieteur News, headlined, ‘Ministry of Finance putting staff health at risk’ by ‘A very concerned Guyanese’ in which the writer states that a ‘Ministry of Finance staff showed COVID-19 symptoms at work and was subsequently tested positive’ and that ‘The ministry quickly took action and arranged for all members of that department to be tested,’ but that ‘they were told to continue going to work rather than isolating themselves until the test results become available.’ The letter added: ‘Now, others are showing symptoms and may have spread the virus to many other staff.’

The ministry wishes to make it pellucidly clear that it takes the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic very seriously, so much so that it has been one of the lead ministries, if not the lead ministry in ensuring that its staffers are safe and observe all protocols in relation to the virus and their work environment. It can be recalled that the Ministry of Finance (in kind collaboration with the Ministry of Health) hosted vaccination drives consistently in its compound. During those vaccination drives, all staffers and their family members were provided with the opportunity to be vaccinated with hundreds being administered the first and second doses of vaccines since early 2021. In fact, the ministry conducted another vaccination drive on December 17, 2021, to allow for all staff and their family members to be administered the booster vaccine as well. In addition to these measures, the ministry is fully equipped with sanitisers and masks for staff who observe all protocols while on duty.

Despite all this, the ministry is aware, however, that there is the possibility that staffers can still contract the virus as they interact with the public on a daily basis, during the period to and from work or even while at home. As a consequence, it has been a policy of the ministry that if any staff member displays symptoms and tests positive, entire specific departments are shut down, tests administered on all of the staff, and those staffers are immediately thereafter sent home to await their PCR test results. Many staffers have been able to work quite effectively (sometimes virtually) from home during periods when any such case has ever occurred. Moreover, the ministry has maintained the Ministry of Health’s policy of staffers and members of the public being required to display their vaccination cards prior to entering the ministry.

The ministry is therefore unaware of any such incident where staffers of any of its departments were tested and asked to remain at work or continue to come to work until they receive results, as this would be absolutely callous (exposing an entire ministry and the public to the virus) and would never be a policy practised by this ministry.

The ministry is committed to ensuring as far as possible that its staff are healthy and safe and observe all COVID-19 protocols and will continue to provide them with the necessary tools to allow for them to remain so. It therefore considers this letter in Kaietaur News to be highly mischievous as it is totally opposite to what actually obtains at this ministry and will never occur.

Yours sincerely,
Candace Field
Communications Director
Ministry of Finance