Rolle submits govt will move forward with all promotions and other exercises will be “approved without fail”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Davis-led administration’s review of promotions doled out under the FNM government is “foolish” as the procedure was conducted in accordance with the Public Service Commission, according to former Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle yesterday.
The government has announced that it is reviewing the promotions and hiring of more than 500 workers in the six to eight weeks leading up to the General Election.
In an interview with Eyewitness News, Rolle said it’s “a scary thing that a signal is being sent that politicians will review promotions.”
He insisted that the Public Service Commission is an independent body of nominated professionals from all ranks of the service that vets candidates, put them through a process of review, and make recommendations.
“When a politician now takes the position that they are going to review promotions, what it means to me is the politician will review promotions and make a determination as to who is entitled and who is not,” Rolle added.
The former public service minister noted that the last service-wide promotion exercise done by the Free National Movement was 2011, with the “majority” of the promotions in the group having been recommended by the PLP.
He said that service-wide exercise by the Minnis administration was scheduled to be September but that never took place with the government being voted out at the September 16 snap elections.
“I’m patiently waiting for the outcome of this review,” Rolle added.
“And I contend and I submit is what is going to take place is they are going to come back and all of those promotions and other exercises will be approved without fail.”
He noted that the governor-general has already accented to those promotions and public officers have already spoken to one another about them, so it would be “foolish” for politicians to even consider reviewing them.
Among those departments to be impacted, the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), Immigration and Customs Officers and the Royal Bahamas Police Force, and other areas across the public sector.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Public Service Fred Mitchell has said that public sector promotions have been held out of “an abundance of caution” due to the manner in which they were issued.
However, Rolle insisted yesterday that the promotions of public workers were in train long before a snap election was being considered, with the position being taken by the former administration that individuals in the uniform branch would get their promotions.
He said that the public was advised in December 2020 that all the promotions and recommendations for promotions that were made up to that time could not be rolled out until the new budget in July.
Rolle noted that this process, which would be a review of over 20,000 individuals in the public service, took more than a month with recommendations required from the different ministries and individuals in the public service given the opportunity to write objections to those recommendations.
“I’m driven by the fact that these are political decisions and regrettably it is saying to the professionals in the service, going forward those decisions will be political and that’s not what I believe the public service ought to be about,” he added.
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