Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
SEVERAL SENIOR officers at the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) are demanding that the Government sack the chairman and other members of the board whom they describe as incompetent, complacent and lacking in vision.
They did not mince words in declaring that the chairman and some of the board members must go. The officers, who have spoken under conditions of anonymity out of fear of being fired, argued that the JFB was allowed to deteriorate while the board and its chairman, Delroy Brown, stood silently in the shadows.
"All the ills the fire brigade has faced and you don't hear him say one single word," one officer stated.
MEDIOCRE PERFORMANCE
But Mr. Brown fired back at his subordinates: "Firemen can't ask me to resign (because) they never put me there." However, Mr. Brown, who rated his own performance as chairman of the board of the national fire service as "mediocre", said he did not have a difficulty in resigning "tomorrow". In fact, he said, the dawning of 2006 would not see him in that capacity. "It is too hard and it takes too much time," he conceded.
In the meantime, a Sunday Gleaner source revealed that the senior officers were bitter because of the unflattering findings of a forensic audit of the JFB, yet to be made public. "It is a very damning report about their technical ineptitude and ability to manage the stations," the source revealed. Investigations revealed that the Ministry of Local Government-commissioned audit was conducted by PA Infrastructure Consultants Group from the United Kingdom.
The decision to advertise the post of commissioner of the JFB rather than finding an in-house replacement is among the recommendations of the study, The Sunday Gleaner understands. The head post was made vacant earlier this year after the board refused to renew Major George Benson's contract.
In an interview at that time, Mr. Brown said that the board's decision to not renew Major Benson's contract was hinged on the belief that it was time for "new blood" to take over the reigns of the JFB. This decision drew the ire of Kingston's Mayor, Desmond McKenzie, who described the move as malicious.
The JFB's outdated fleet and equipment have sparked much debate in the last two years. It has been severely criticised in recent times for its failure to put out fires and deal with emergencies and the Government has been blamed for supervising a ramshackle fire service.
RESOLUTION MOVED
Things came to a head in Parliament last April when members of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party moved a resolution that government had neglected the fire services. Minister of Local Government Portia Simpson Miller, under whose portfolio the fire service falls, did not vote against the resolution.
Firefighters have consistently called on authorities to address their outdated equipment. They say it has become almost hopeless to tackle major assignments which includes a series of bush fires in rural Jamaica. For much of his 10 years as head of the JFB, the former chief, major George Benson, also bemoaned the unit's lack of modern equipment
But the officers say their beef is with the board. One high-ranking officer, who has been with the JFB for more than three decades, said that he could not point to a single significant accomplishment of the Brown-led board. The officer argued that the board has no vision. He said that it has failed to invest in the training of young and promising personnel. The senior officer said Mr. Brown should have commanded better respect for the battered fire services, seeing he has the Prime Minister's ear. "If you and the PM is big friend, you should get more results ... He just doesn't have the capacity," he concluded.
DECISIVE ACTION
An official from the National Association of Fire Officers, who also spoke under conditions of anonymity, dared Mrs. Simpson Miller to take decisive action. "The minister needs to take a look at the board of the Jamaica Fire Brigade as she has done at the National Solid Waste," he said. "Some (board) members are committed and trying while others are wall flowers."
The call for the chairman's head was also echoed by an officer with 20 plus years of experience under his belt. "He must go and make room for someone ... who has some knowledge of how firefighting is done," he stressed.
Mr. Brown admitted that the limited knowledge he has of firefighting was garnered after his appointment. Still, he insisted that the board's mandate is to deal with formulating bureaucracy and not to battle fires.
"The board don't out fires ... that's why the commissioner and the deputy commissioners sit on the board," he argued.
While he gave his nine-year chairmanship a humdrum grade, he said that it was largely due to a dearth in funding that the brigade has been hampered for more than a decade. He explained that the lack of funding has restricted the brigade's ability to offer training to its staff.
However, Mr. Brown and the senior officers agreed that the long-awaited help for the brigade has apparently arrived under the stewardship of Mrs. Simpson Miller.
Still, the officers are adamant that Mr. Brown must go. "We need somebody with drive and vision ... He could go now and I don't think he would be missed."
