The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC Service State Minister Pia Glover-Rolle said her ministry will be investigating cases where public service workers were overlooked for promotions “in favour of others” to ensure proper procedures were followed.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Mrs Glover-Rolle said the issue was the next item on her agenda after addressing the backlog of promotions since coming into office.

The minister added that she hopes once internal assessments are completed, all “gaps and deficiencies” in the public service sector will be identified so officials can know where to make necessary improvements.

“The first order of business was to clear the backlog of promotions that was sitting on the desk of the ministry since 2017,” she said.

“But the wait is now over. The teams at the ministry worked diligently and we cleared that four-year backlog in record time. Our next order of business is a service-wide staffing and skills audit so that we can assess where the public service is currently and where the gaps and deficiencies are and set the road map to take us where we need to be.

“This roadmap will include capacity building exercises especially for HR and communication professionals. We will involve all necessary stakeholders, including the relevant departments, ministries and unions to get this initiative done. While we perform this audit, we will also be looking into cases where public servants were passed over promotion in favour of others. There are many legitimate reasons why the employee may be superseded for a promotion but there are also instances where there may be areas of concern,” Mrs Glover-Rolle continued.

“We will be looking at individual cases ensuring that proper processes were followed. If an employee has an excellent performance, no record of behavioral incidents, met the qualifications and had no other red flags on their record, appropriate actions must be taken to ascertain why that employee was overlooked and to ensure that the situation did not occur due to personal issues or political motivations. (There’s) absolutely no room for that kind of unfairness in the public service under our watch.”

She added that the government will review all funds owed to civil servants among other things, noting the Davis administration is committed to ensuring that hard working Bahamians are paid their dues in a timely manner.

Our vision for the public service is certainly ambitious, but we intend to deliver in a big way,” she added.