MARIGOT--The Triple R government fired Cabinet Director Alex Richards on Saturday over allegations that President Alain Richardson's inaugural Declaration of Policy speech on April 1 was plagiarised, thereby sparking a crisis that threatened to destabilise the new government with President Richardson only a week in office.
Journalists at St. Martin's Week and Fax Info uncovered the scandal just before the holiday weekend, finding proof that Richardson's inaugural speech was based almost entirely on a speech delivered by Prime Minister Luc Adolphe Tiao of Burkina Faso in November 2011.
Fax Info subsequently disclosed Saturday that speeches had also allegedly been stolen by Richards from presidential candidates François Hollande and Hervé Morin.
With a press conference announced for this morning, the government will move swiftly into damage control mode to contain the fall out and restore the public's confidence. But questions will be raised on whether Richardson had vetted the speech beforehand, or if he had known it was not an original text, and why he did not write the speech himself. And more importantly, why Richards was hired when he was at the centre of a similar scandal in 2006 when he was Tourism Director.
President Richardson in a release on Saturday stated he had no other choice but to take an "exceptional, but proportional measure to end the functions of my newly recruited Cabinet Director Alex Richards."
He added the decision was made in consultation with entire RRR group.
"Transparency has always been the order of the day and this is the spirit which will continue to guide the actions of RRR. This regrettable episode will not affect in any way implementation of the programme for which we were elected, and our determination to serve the population," he stressed.
Answering to the rapidly evolving controversy last Thursday, Richards denied any plagiarism and claimed the "similarities" between the two speeches were there because both speeches were written by a hired specialist speech writer, called Pierre Marssin.
St. Martin's Week, however, in its diligent investigation found no evidence of a Pierre Marssin existing or writing a speech for the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, except for finding a Facebook page for a Pierre Marssin who had one friend: Alex Richards.
The newspaper was furthermore able to make contact with the former communications director of the Prime Minister, who confirmed his cabinet had prepared the speech and the Prime Minister had no knowledge of a Pierre Marssin.
Annuities Darren Bent Employment law Middle East Extradition Gabriel Agbonlahor
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