Pinder: So-called smart politicians need to try bring govt into the 21st Century instead of worrying about me
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Labour Director John Pinder yesterday defended his civil service position and pushed back against comments made towards him by Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Senator Fred Mitchell, insisting the former Fox Hill MP is afraid of him as an opponent.
Last week, during his presentation to the 2021/2022 budget debate in the Senate, Mitchell questioned Pinder’s conduct as a civil servant, given reports of campaigning in the Fox Hill area, insisting he is supposed to be neutral in the application of his responsibilities.
Pinder has previously said if he is ratified for a political party in The Bahamas, he will step down as director.
Yesterday, in an interview with Eyewitness News, he maintained that position, indicating that until such time: “I will continue to function, I will continue to be a factor, I will continue to be professional in my responsibility as director of labor.”
Responding to the PLP senator’s criticisms, Pinder said: “Until Mr Mitchell can produce some evidence where I’m not being impartial, or where I’m not acting professionally, or I’m not performing my duties the best to my country, it’s only hot air; that’s all it is.”
He admitted he does walk through the Fox Hill constituency between 6pm and 8pm to get to know residents, but insisted he did not gain an edge through his civil service position.
Mitchell, as he criticized Pinder last week, pointed to the General Service Orders that govern the political activities of civil servants, which state: “The first duty of a public officer is to give his undivided allegiance to the state, i.e. to the government of the day.
“In joining the public service, a public officer voluntarily enters a profession in which his service to the public will take a non-political form, and whatever may be his political inclination, his impartiality in the performance of his duty must be beyond suspicion.
“It follows therefore that a public officer should not normally take any active part in matters of public or political controversy, and particularly if the matter is one with which he is officially concerned.”
The labor directed insisted, however, those regulations are outdated and mature politicians should stop referring to them and instead seek to change them.
“If that is the case, you ought to change that by now. You cannot run a country from the 19th Century when doing business in the 21st Century,” he said.
Pinder added it is “unfortunate that for any civil servant to enter into any level of politics, it’s expected for them to resign their position”.
“The better persons to run this country are those civil servants who know the public service from bottom to top and know the way in which governments ought to govern,” he said.
He asserted that civil servants should only have to resign upon nomination of running for office and not ratification into a party, indicating ratification doesn’t necessarily mean the individual is going to run in an election or be successful.
“I think those so-called smart politicians, rather than try to worry about me as director getting a ratification at some point, they need to try to bring the Parliament and the government system up to a more modern way of doing business,” the labor director said.
Pinder said if the Free National Movement (FNM) is successful in its bid for reelection, he will agitate for the government to agree that senior civil servants ought to be placed on administrative leave, instead of resigning, if they wish to enter into frontline politics, and it should be upon them being nominated.
Fox Hill is among the few seats the FNM has yet to ratify.
The incumbent Shonel Ferguson, who beat Mitchell with 2,440 votes, compared to his 2,198 votes, is not seeking renomination.
The PLP has completed its slate of candidates, with Mitchell being ratified for the Fox Hill constituency.
