Opposition critical of FNM candidate’s campaigning before resignation
“If they allow me to purchase govt vehicle, I will…if the price is right”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Confirming his retirement from the civil sector, former Labour Director John Pinder said yesterday he will also seek to purchase his government-issued vehicle.
Pinder was ratified as the Free National Movement (FNM) candidate for Fox Hill last week, closing out the party’s 39-candidate slate for the upcoming general election.
The veteran labor leader had previously advised he would retire from public service after being ratified by the party.
“I’m no longer the director of labour. I’m no longer a civil servant. I am now a retiree,” he told Eyewitness News.
Pinder said his retirement was effective on July 16, with the matter of his outstanding vacation being handled.
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Fred Mitchell — the opposition’s candidate for Fox Hill — has continuously lashed the FNM and Pinder for his campaigning while holding his post as labour director.
He further criticized Pinder’s canvassing of the Fox Hill constituency in his government-issued vehicle.
“Mr Pinder openly campaigned in Fox Hill while he sat as a civil servant, in violation of General Orders, while he tried to fix himself up financially,” Mitchell said in a statement.
“This was selfish, disrespectful, abusive of his office and corrupt.”
However, Pinder insisted that he handled the matter “the right way”.
He noted that during the days of his campaigning, he was on vacation.
He also said that when senior civil servants retire, they are normally given the opportunity to purchase their government-issued vehicle.
“I have three other vehicles,” he said.
“I just like the vehicle I was driving and I say let me see if I could get the same treatment that the other people get.
“If they allow me to purchase it, I will purchase it — now, that’s only providing the price is right.”
Pinder has previously 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.
He said if the 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.
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