The Office of St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris has accused Leon Natta-Nelson, a Senior Customs Officer and Accountant at Her Majesty’s Customs of engaging in political activity.
A letter dated October 10th 2018 from the Human Resource Management Department in the Office of the Prime Minister to Mr. Natta-Nelson said it has received “an adverse report of his involvement in political activity” thus contravening the Public Service (Conduct and Ethics of Officers) Code.
The letter which Mr. Natta-Nelson received only on October 17 alleges “that on or about the end of June 2018, you Leon Natta-Nelson, did introduce yourself to a resident of Christ Church Village, Christ Church, St. Kitts, as a candidate of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party running against the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris for the next general election.”
The Office of Prime Minister Harris also alleges that Mr. Natta-Nelson “on or about the end of June 2018 did seek to solicit and or canvass support for your political campaign from a resident of Christ Church Village, Christ Church, St. Kitts.”
Mr. Natta has until October 18th to respond. “Your response will be sent to the Public Service Commission,” said the letter.
The letter is dated October 10, the same day, Mr. Nelson-Natta was arrested on a warrant signed by Prime Minister Harris’ sister, Magistrate Donna Harris and charged with an alleged criminal offence.
“The senior officer of the Customs Department was taken into police custody based on trumped up charges relating to being late with licensing his firearm, although said license had been issued by the competent authority and the firearm was at the time of arrest licensed,” said Leader of the Opposition and Political Leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas during his weekly radio programme “Ask the Leader” on Tuesday. There is no official announcement from the SKNLP who its candidate will be for St. Christopher 7 (Ottley’s to Harris.)
“This is yet another immoral, uncaring and undemocratic move by Timothy Harris as it is against civil service regulations that anyone should face disciplinary action while criminal proceedings against them are pending,” said the Party, which highlighted the Public Service Act, Section 34, which states: “Where criminal proceedings are instituted in any Court against a public officer, no disciplinary proceedings upon any ground arising out of the criminal charge shall be taken until after the Court has given its judgement and the time allowed for appeal against the judgment has expired, and where the public officer has, after conviction, appealed, no disciplinary proceedings shall be taken until after the withdrawal or dismissal of the appeal.”
“Dr. Harris is evidently doing all he can to tarnish the good name of Mr. Leon Natta. Despite all the propaganda and charges, the government continues to bring against Natta, the only thing he is truly guilty of is serving the people of his community to the best of his ability,” the SKNLP said.
“The people’s love for Natta continues to back Timothy Harris into a wall, forcing him to show his true colours. Harris is losing the confidence of the people of his constituency and he knows it. In his desperate bid to hang on to power, he has become a monster and a dictator of immense proportion,” the Labour Party said.