It may not have been the birthday gift he was expecting, but the PPP Civic Government today terminated the contract of the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority, Lelon Saul, as he celebrated his 52nd birthday.

Saul joined the Central Housing and Planning Authority in 2017 after working for a number of years with the local office of the United Nations Development Programme.

He also served in the Guyana Defence Force where he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Saul was officially relieved of his duties as the CEO for CHPA with immediate effect although his letter of termination stated that he is allowed to proceed on one month’s leave that is owed to him.

He was told that the decision to terminate him was based on a decision at the Cabinet level.

Saul oversaw the last three years of the previous government’s housing initiative and was seen as a no-nonsense person in the Housing Department.

Back in 2019, he flagged a housing construction contract that had been granted to the husband of the then Minister responsible for Housing, Valerie Patterson. Saul called for a review of the way contracts were issued by the CHPA for the government’s programme and the then Minister was even removed from the Ministry and handed another portfolio.

Staffers at the Central Housing and Planning Authority were shocked by the decision to terminate Saul’s contract. Some of them were forced to cancel’s the office’s plans to buy him cake and have a mini-celebration at work today.

Since taking office, the new PPP Civic Government has fired a number of high level and even low level government workers who it considers to be political appointees.

In many cases, the persons fired were not known to be affiliated to any political party.

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