Deputy Commissioner Frederick Whyte, who has been named acting fire chief until a successor is named for Major H G Benson, has launched a broadside against the major, saying he had failed to implement a succession plan.

The two men are expected to work very closely together over the next month as Benson, a former army man who is still seen as an outsider after 10 years at the brigade’s helm, prepares to hand over the reins.

“We have not trained anybody in the management of the service in the past 10-15 years and that has been one of our problems over the years,” Whyte said during an interview with the Observer last week.

Benson did not return calls from the Observer.

“If you are in a service for 10 years and after 10 years you are still scurrying around to find somebody to put in place as commissioner, it is an indictment on the organisation, because 10 years is enough to plan for succession,” Whyte added. “We are just starting to do that, and how long will it take? Can you pick a man in three to six months and turn him into a commissioner?”

The lack of a coherent succession plan had long been a source of concern among firefighters, he added.

Steps are now being taken to have Benson’s successor trained in England.

On Friday, Kingston mayor Desmond McKenzie had interpreted the scramble for a new fire chief as an indication that Benson had fallen out of favour and had been suddenly dismissed. The outspoken fire chief has consistently pointed to the lack of resources supplied to the fire brigade and the mayor was concerned that Benson was being made into a scapegoat.

McKenzie has called on local government minister Portia Simpson Miller to explain the rationale behind Benson’s departure.

“There is. justified concern that the major may have been punished for remarks he has made publicly about the situation within the fire brigade,” the mayor said in a statement.

Benson tussled with Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last February, after concerns were raised that the fire brigade had not paid over $416 million in statutory deductions to the finance ministry. At the time, the fire chief had insisted that he had been forced to use those funds to fill gaps in his budget. He had asked for $103 million in the 2003/04 budget to cover travelling allowances and subsistence, but got only $31.4 million.

The local government ministry had intimated to the PAC that the problem of meeting payrolls within that ministry were largely confined to the fire brigade. But Benson had hit back, painting a picture of a chronic lack of resources.

“For the past few years, Benson has made frequent statements to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on the extremely poor situation within the brigade, arising from the lack of resources from central government,” McKenzie said. “I am calling on the minister to make a full disclosure of the reasons why Benson’s contract has not been renewed.”

Benson was hired in 1995 and the brigade’s board opted not to renew the fire chief’s contract when it expired on February 28, saying the plan had always been that the he would have been on the job for 10 years.

On Friday, brigade board chairman Delroy Brown dismissed McKenzie’s concerns that Benson was being punished for speaking out.

“I hear him (the mayor) asking for the minister to give a full disclosure. I don’t know what more the minister will have to say. I don’t think that she will have anything else to say where the gentleman is concerned. I don’t have anything else to say,” Brown told the Observer on Friday.

He stressed that Benson’s contract had simply ended.

“He surely has done nothing in the eyes of the board for dismissal. It is not a dismissal and George (Benson) knows that; we have a very good relationship. I don’t have any secrets,” Brown added.

For Whyte, who already has a list of ideas he wants to see implemented under his watch, the focus has now shifted from why Benson is out to the future of the brigade.

Now, he said, firefighters are happy that one of their own will be promoted to the top job.

“In most fire brigades in the world, the people are experienced in the ranks. They pass through the rank and know exactly what it is to be a fire chief,” Whyte said. “So it is not just about management alone; it’s about technical capabilities. If we had a big fire at Petrojam now, what could the commissioner bring to it?”

But he conceded that a lack of resources had made Benson’s job difficult.

“We can’t rule out the (issue of) resources. None of us can do without resources and he has been plagued with a lack of services,” Whyte admitted, adding that Benson had made some progress, if only a little, over the years.

He cited the improvement in the operations of the fire services’ registry, which, though not computerised, was operating efficiently. He also pointed to Benson’s lobbying of the local government ministry for improvements to the island’s fire service.

During his stint as acting commissioner over the next six months, Whyte said the training of brigade personnel, young and old, would be among the areas he will try to address.

The brigade’s officer corps, he said, was woefully lacking in young blood.

“I was told that at least one to three per cent of your budget should be going to training, or your organisation dies. This organisation is almost dead now because we have not trained our people,” he said. “When they go to fires they can’t perform as they should, because the commanders are not trained. They are willing but they are not trained.”

He added: “Most of the officers in the brigade are over 40. There needs to be inspiration, a mixture of ranks where the younger people can feel a part of the service. People must be young and have rank too.”

In addition to the training, Whyte said he would seek to:

. ensure that discipline is maintained throughout the service;

. set agreed-upon performance standards and issue job descriptions to members so that they may be held accountable for their performance on the job;

. pursue the draft strategic plan to improve the operations of the brigade; and

. adapt an inclusive management style to give bridge members a chance to have a say in the operations of the organisation.