Eckstein: No corruption at NCRHA

Eckstein, a former health minister from 1991 to 1995, told Newsday that the NCRHA’s board of directors conducted a transparent and open interview process to fill the human resources post, and concluded that Honore was the most qualified person for the job from among the persons who were interviewed.

Honore started work as human resources manager at the NCRHA on August 8. Eckstein said after six weeks on the job, the board concluded that Honore was not suitable for the post and took the decision to terminate her services on Monday.

He said the decision was totally above the board and if Honore chose to challenge the decision in court, she was free to do so and the NCRHA would be prepared to defend itself if such a situation arose.

Responding to allegations from some NCRHA workers that corruption was rampant within the authority, Eckstein said there was absolutely no truth to those allegations and anyone familiar with his 20-year track record in public life knows that his integrity is unquestionable. He conceded that while the NCRHA is "a difficult institution" to manage, proper procedures are being put in place to ensure that the authority runs at maximum efficiency.

Eckstein said many of the problems which the NCRHA has to grapple with today were linked to problems in the past due to numerous transitions, including the Central RHA’s incorporation into the North-West RHA under the former UNC government.

At a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall on July 22, 2003, Health Minister John Rahael said the UNC’s decision to incorporate the CRHA into the NWRHA had caused significant problems within the latter.