The We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party is demanding immediate accountability within the child protection system following what it described as a “damning” letter by former Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) Director Ann Greene, warning of serious institutional failures.
In a press statement, WIN said it notes “with grave concern” Greene’s letter published in Stabroek News, which followed reports that two teenage mothers reportedly gave birth at a public hospital without any structured follow-up intervention from child protection services. The party said Greene’s intervention “cannot be dismissed as partisan commentary,” noting that she is a retired Chief Probation & Welfare Officer and former Director of the CPA.
Greene, in her letter, said the cases of the “fourteen and fifteen-year-old mothers are causing me anguish” and questioned what response the Childcare & Protection Agency mounted. She pointed out that the age of consent is sixteen and that medical officers are bound under Child Protection laws to report such cases, after which the Agency “must intervene for the protection of the children and babies and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
“Protection involves the children being taken into safe places with the babies for care while the cases are being investigated, and if adult perpetrators are involved, they must be charged for statutory rape,” Greene wrote. She added that in such circumstances, both mother and baby should be cared for by the State and continuation of school “would have been a must.”
WIN said Greene’s assessment “points to deep institutional weaknesses within the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) and Probation and Social Services,” warning that failure to urgently address these weaknesses would place children at continued risk.
Greene was blunt in her criticism of the agency’s leadership and structure. “There is something not right at the Childcare & Protection Agency in terms of leadership and execution of roles,” she stated, adding that there are reports of individuals being placed in high positions “with not an ounce of training and understanding of their roles, responsibilities and Child Protection laws.” She described this as “displeasing to many of the staff” and said “Serious intervention is needed at this stage to save Childcare & Protection Agency and the Probation & Social Services.”
WIN said ultimate responsibility lies with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, under Minister Vindhya Persaud, noting that when teenage pregnancies intersect with poverty, abuse risk and social vulnerability, “intervention must always be mandatory.”
The party further argued that Greene’s concerns reflect broader systemic issues, including “growing complaints about inadequate domestic violence response mechanisms, overburdened social workers, and eligible persons with disability being left off of the disability grant register.” According to WIN, the letter suggests these are “not isolated incidents but symptomatic of broader systemic management deficiencies.”
Greene also stressed the need for properly qualified professional leadership within the ministry. “Minister is the Executive Political Head of the Ministry, Permanent Secretary is the administrative head, but not the professional heads of the Departments,” she wrote, arguing that top departmental positions “must be certified as well as qualified specialists” capable of giving informed professional guidance.
WIN is now calling for “an urgent independent operational review of the Childcare and Protection Agency and Probation and Social Services,” public disclosure of child protection response protocols in cases involving teenage mothers and high-risk minors, a status report on disability grant backlogs and domestic violence case processing times, and “a clear corrective action plan with measurable timelines.”
“This is about governance and the duty of care,” WIN stated, adding that if structural weaknesses are undermining the ministry’s mandate to protect the vulnerable, “they must be corrected immediately, not deflected.”
