#PetrojamReport | Receptionist denies writing fictitious résumé

A former Petrojam employee has disclosed that the résumé submitted on her behalf to the state-owned oil refinery with academic qualifications she did not possess was prepared by late Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor Owen Palmer.

Michon Daley was hired by Petrojam as a telephone operator/receptionist in November 2017 on a two-year contract that paid her $165,072 per month plus other benefits, according to a report by the Integrity Commission.

The contract was terminated in October the following year because Daley could not validate the qualifications listed in her résumé.

Before her stint at the state-owned refinery, Daley did summer jobs at the constituency office of St Catherine South Central Member of Parliament and then Energy Minister Dr Andrew Wheatley.

Palmer, the former councillor for the Homestead division of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation, also shared the same office space, according to Daley.

The résumé on file at Petrojam for Daley showed that she had Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) passes in integrated science (3), information technology (2), social studies (3) and accounts (3). English language was listed as ‘pending’.

The position of telephone operator/receptionist at the refinery required four subjects at the CXC or General Certificate of Education (GCE) level, as well as formal training and experience.

Daley admitted, during an interview with investigators at the Integrity Commission on October 22, 2018, that she did not have the educational qualifications listed in her résumé and detailed Palmer’s role in helping her to land the almost $2-million per year job.

Interview 

“So, I will ask you the question then. Do you have the qualification to give copies of the qualification to give me?” asked Director of Investigation at the commission, David Grey, according to transcripts included in the report.

“No, sir,” replied Daley.

“Do you have the qualifications any at all?” Grey pressed.

“The one that I told you [about] the last time, I didn’t have it, because, really and truly, I don’t want to call up Councillor Palmer name, because is not really me put the résumé together or anything, it was him who drop it off,” she said.

“Just to clarify your statements just now, you are saying that it was Councillor Palmer who prepared the statement and dropped it off,” the investigator continued.

“Yes,” Daley replied.

Daley told the commission that she was interviewed for the job by former Human Resource Manager Yolande Ramharrack, but was never asked to produce the educational qualifications listed on her résumé.

In fact, the former telephone operator/receptionist said the first time she saw her résumé was just before her 2018 sit-down with investigators at the commission.

“Like when you were doing the interview with Miss Ramharrack, did she present the résumé to you when she was asking you about the job?” Grey asked.

“She never ask mi about my résumé,” Daley said.

Ramharrack was questioned, during a separate interview with the director of investigation, about whether she made any attempts to verify the qualifications listed in Daley’s résumé.

“We sought to when I spoke to her, I asked her what her qualifications were, she indicated having done some [sic] CXCs, we had a subsequent, I would say a follow-up interview with her, which included her supervisor at the time as well, and we gave her the time to provide the necessary documents, and that was documented,” the former HR manager responded.

Irregular

The director of investigation found that the circumstances under which Daley was employed were “highly irregular”.

“The entity breached its own internal policies in this regard,” the commission found.

The irregularities outlined in the report are:

(a) Petrojam Limited employed Mrs Michon Daley née Bell as the telephone operator/receptionist notwithstanding the fact that she did not provide evidence of her stated academic qualifications; and

(b) Petrojam Limited breached clause 14.2.2 of its recruitment process policy in its failure to affix the signature of the managing director to the employment contract of Mrs Daley.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.