Andrew Weekes among six fired from the Ministry of Housing

Andrew Weekes and other political appointees at what is now the Ministry of Housing have been fired.

Weekes was hired as the Communications Officer for former Housing Minister Annette Ferguson.

Current Housing Minister Collin Croal said he was surprised that Weekes was employed in that position when the Ministry already has a Public Relations Department with one officer and two assistants.

“In a Ministry like this, you now have four Public Relations Officers.  So this afternoon we took the decision to relieve Mr. Weekes…because those of you who follow social media will see that Mr. Weekes is involved actively in political postings, etc., which runs contrary to his employment duties here in the Ministry.”

Weekes was hired in January 01, 2020 for a period of one year but has not done any work for the Ministry. In fact, he was an active Public Relations Officer for the APNU+AFC Coalition, covering protests, writing articles and even promoting the narrative of the party throughout the elections.

According to documents seen by the News Room, Weekes was being paid $203,202 under the Ministry of Communities with $15,000 for duty and telephone allowance.

Minister Croal said he was initially only provided with a list of employees for the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) but noticed there were others who were not on that list but were at the Ministry.

“…then when I checked it out, I discovered that they’re actually some additional staff but they were employed through the Ministry of Communities,” he said.

Others whose contracts were terminated include Technical Assistant Remington Nelson, Personal Assistant Leon Castello, Confidential Secretary Sandra Booker, Personal Security Nelson Inniss and Advisor to the Minister Carmichael Thorne.

Combined, their salaries amounted to $1,464,596.