LEN planned to fire CEO Tannizia Gasper

THE Board of Directors of the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) planned to fire its Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) Mrs. Tannizia Gasper citing incompetence but delayed the decision
because the impending March 2020 General and Regional polls.
Then government Minister with responsibility for the LEN, Mrs. Valarie Patterson-Yearwood,
would not back the State-controlled Board’s decision though they pressed their case about the
CEO chronic “non-performance”.
Three members of the LEN’s Board spoke with www.aroundtheregions’com on conditions of
anonymity.
“It was the belief by a few political leaders that getting rid of her during the election time was
not the right thing to do as it may affect the anticipated support from her and her family. As such,
the plan was to allow the election to pass over and maybe at the end of April or May that a new
CEO was going to be appointed as this woman was doing so many things that should have
warranted a forensic audit of the monies that were being disbursed and received by LEN,” one of
the Directors said.
The former Director said Gasper was aware that she would be axed but they feared firing her
trigger an extensive investigation into LEN’s operations.
“Every member of the Board lost faith in her and the sad thing is that no action was taken
because there were so many persons outside of the Board who had sought to beg the Minister to
give her another opportunity considering the fact that she was a woman, she was from Linden
and more so, her husband was actively campaigning for the Coalition,” another Director
explained.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mrs. Tannizia Gasper

The third director speaking to www.aroundtheregions.com said: “The current Board had done an
assessment of the CEO’s performance and was very unhappy. At that point in time they
suspended the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) which was a major part of
its operations. It is very important to note that the Board was assessing the CEO Tannizia Gasper
as many felt that she wasn’t doing an effective and efficient job and it is no secret that we were
in the process of firing the CEO.”
LEN’s executives accused the CEO and her husband, Lennox of campaigning earnestly for the
then governing coalition A Partnership for National Unity Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC)
then switch parties when it became obvious that the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C)
will form the new government.
“The Board was highly unhappy with Mrs. Gasper’s performance and we learnt subsequently
that in a desperate bid to save herself, she and her husband who had always been a passionate
supporter of the APNU sought refuge in the PPPC. What is very interesting is that both Mrs. and
Mr. Gasper campaigned aggressively for the former government during the 2020 election but
within weeks of the new government being announced they professed their support and
allegiance to the PPPC administration,” the Directors observed.
So far, the PPP/C government has made no public pronouncement on the CEO’s fate based on
the Board’s recommendation.
“We don’t know if the government stayed quiet until the Board term of office expires so that
they can create and/or maintain the services of Mrs. Gasper considering that she has become an
overnight supporter. This may be a strategy by the government, but they should note that it
wouldn’t work because the entire Linden community knows that Tannizia Gasper was very
ineffective and inefficient at LEN”.
“We sense that the government may want to keep her to continue there or somewhere in
authority but the government should know that the people of the Region are very unhappy and
disgruntled by Mrs. Gasper poor management of LEN,” one of the three former executives said.

While the operations of LEN have been place on hold it has millions in its loan accounts
still available for disbursement to successful applicants, one of the Director assured.

Mrs. Tannizia Gasper and her husband Lennox Gasper