Glover-Rolle says there was no apparent reason for stall in promotions approved since June 2016
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Nearly 300 promotions across the public sector that have been stalled since June 2016 are expected to be advanced within the coming weeks, advised Minister of State for Public Service Pia Glover-Rolle yesterday.
Speaking to reporters outside Cabinet, Rolle confirmed that letters of promotion are expected to be issued for Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDOCS) workers as well as Department of Immigration officers this week.
“We are very happy to have finished that process in the large percentage,” she said.
She indicated that 184 promotions for corrections officers were being reviewed, along with 140 immigration officers — which included 81 promotions and 59 confirmations, with more to follow.
“We have some other sets that are going to be released this week, but we are just waiting on the process to be complete, the letters to be taken care of and then we will get those letters [to] their respective ministries and the ministries will make the necessary announcements,” Rolle said.
She also explained that the review of the 2016 service-wide promotional exercise has also been completed.
She noted that while some 278 promotions were approved from June 2016 under the former Christie administration, “for whatever reason, they would have been on hold until the end of August and there was some movement on them, but of course that wasn’t completed”.
Rolle added that there was “no apparent reason” for a stall in those promotions.
Shortly after coming into office last month, the Davis administration advised that it would put “on hold” hires and promotions carried out under the former Minnis administration in the run-up to last month’s general election.
That review is still ongoing.
Rolle said: “We were just reviewing to make sure, based on information that would have come to us, that any promotions, any hirings, any reclassifications were done based on policy and based on merit.
“As with any administration that takes the helm, it is our duty to take a look at what is happening, especially in the weeks prior to the election when things would have been fast-tracked, that would have been moved through the system quicker than normal.”
In an interview with Eyewitness News, former Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle defended the promotions, indicating that the service-wide exercise by the Minnis administration was scheduled for September but never took place with the government being voted out in the September 16 snap election.
Rolle called the new government’s review “foolish” given that the “majority” of the promotions in the group would have been recommended by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), adding that the governor general already assented to the action.
He said the last service-wide promotion exercise done by the Free National Movement (FNM) was in 2011.
