STATE Public Service Minister Pia Glover-Rolle.
By KHRISNA RUSSELL
Tribune Chief Reporter
krussell@tribunemedia.net
STATE Public Service Minister Pia Glover-Rolle disclosed yesterday that there were instances where people were engaged for jobs on Election Day, while about 40 workers were hired and are being paid but remain at home because there are no jobs for them to do.
Due to these instances among other issues, the minister said there is now a hiring freeze in the public service which will remain in place until an audit of the service is completed in 2022.
It is also likely some of those engaged in the lead up to the September election may have to be disengaged, the minister said.
“There is a hold on hiring at this time until we make an analysis based on the audit of where we need to build capacity,” the minister said during the weekly press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister.
“We can’t just hire and not know where to put people. We have to make sure we’re placing people in positions that are available and that are necessary to move the public service forward.
“As you know we do have a programme called the 52-week programme that will be relaunched as the public service professional engagement programme that will resume in the middle of 2022 where we will continue to take on cohorts of the 52-weekers, but the plan is after your 52-weeks you will be confirmed in the service should you have no adverse reports.
“Those that have not performed well and may have adverse reports then we would give an extended period for them to acclimate or those that need to be released from the programme.
“But that hiring process, which is the stream that we bring persons into the public service generally, will resume as soon as our audit is done and I anticipate that will be about June or July 2022.”
Asked whether anything questionable had taken place within the service in the lead up to the general election, the minister said there was hiring on Election Day and people reported for jobs in the weeks after.
“We have found that in instances there has been engagement into the public service on the day of election and even days after election when the government would have obviously been changed. So, those in particular we will be looking at to ensure that the proper methodology of engagement was engaged for those persons.
“That doesn’t mean that everybody that came in during a certain period is questionable, but we need to make sure that they aren’t and then take the necessary measures to either engage them the proper way with proper contracts signings or whatever the case maybe or see where they are to be placed.
“I will tell you that there are persons that were hired in the last eight weeks that are still at home that are being paid but there is nowhere to place them and that is why we have to have the audit to ensure that we are filling the gaps and building capacity where it’s necessary and not just bringing people on to have a job.”
Currently, she said officials were looking to see where these people could be placed.
While she said she could not confirm what these new hires were costing the government, she said they were spread across the country.
“The persons at home are not only in New Providence. They are across the country. So, as we analyse our records for the persons that are engaged or the persons we think are engaged and we do our due diligence to check, obviously with their immediate supervisors, that is how we are processing the check and balance of who is on the job.
“That process again is ongoing. As a result, I don’t have final numbers and as a result I don’t have final costs.
“I want you to know that these programmes like the 52-week, the funds are available but we can’t have people being paid to sit at home or we can’t have people being paid that come to work and there is no job for them to do.”
Asked to give a conservative figure of how many were at home, she said: “In the first instance I would say probably about 40 and let me make it relative: the programme normally engages about 1,000 people so at this time about 40.”
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Comments
C2B 2 years, 12 months ago
This is why Bahamian bonds have to yield 9% and ratings agencies continue to downgrade the creditworthiness of the Nation. Would you lend money to The Bahamas?
truetruebahamian 2 years, 12 months ago
Minnis and Cristie - brothers in stupidity!
tribanon 2 years, 12 months ago
Someone please tell Pia the election has come and gone. The truly hurting unemployed or under employed person is not just concerned about getting a deadend government job. What is this Davis led administration doing for our economy and businesses to help create decent paying jobs in the private sector?
Did she really have the gall to say "we need to build capacity"? Does't Pia know that our very costly, inefficient and unproductive civil workforce is grossly over-bloated as it is?
Did she really say that with a straight face? Pia has to be kidding! She should be thinking about how to best go about shrinking the size of the public sector workforce. Meanwhile, the rest of her cabinet colleagues should be laser focused on how to about creating a business environment conducive to the creation of decent paying job opportunities in the private sector.
Pia is making a fool of herself. Either that or she's really detached from reality, possibly bordering on deranged.
Now that just takes the cake! Pia is telling us many of the pre-election hirees on government payroll are sitting home doing nothing because they should never have been hired in the first place. Yet she's now looking at where in government to place these people. Is she for real!!
Pia Glover-Rolle is an embarrassing national disgrace. She's making it abundantly abundantly clear that the corrupt Davis-led administration is looking to make our already unaffordable and grossly over bloated government even bigger.
Every dollar our country borrows today from the international lending community, along with our VAT dollars, is going towards an ever growing government payroll. And that's the reason why our already unsustainable national debt continues to grow at an ever increasing and most alarming pace.
licks2 2 years, 12 months ago
I do find her professional, balanced and competent in her field!! I like this minister. . .she is right in her assessments!!
Hoda 2 years, 12 months ago
I'm not sure, if u watched the live briefing they delivered this information about hires before/on election and how there may be no work for them etc... The reporters asked the minister to come back and asked her if she had a number on how may people, how much it costs? she said no. They asked her for a conservative guess she said 40 people. It seemed like an attempt to suggest something more nefarious and scandalous, like it was 100 hundreds of persons. So, I would have to agree why are you inferring and suggesting something untoward with 40 hires but in the same breath saying the government wants to hire people where there is need etc...
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 12 months ago
There's an information gap. The minister is not the expert but is often required to speak. The person responsible for briefing the minister fell down. This is a basic question. The next approach, if the minister finds it imposdible to retain all the information required, then they should not be appearing by themselves. They should show up with at least 2 technical experts. That support buffers both the minister and the experts, everyone has assurance that no matter what question is asked someone has the answer. Of course this presupposes that they show up as a "team" who've prepared together with a single purpose
realfreethinker 2 years, 12 months ago
I find it odd she is talking about a hiring freeze when every candidate for the plp is on the government payroll not to mention the other close friends that have been hired "Fitzy". The freeze in only for the low end workers I guess
FrustratedBusinessman 2 years, 12 months ago
250 a week x 52 = 13k a year.
13k x 40 = 520k a year.
Sickened 2 years, 12 months ago
Too easy.
You should have put 'minimum' in there as well. And don't forget about the non-contributory pension and food vouchers and overtime (even though there's nothing for them to do) etc.
sheeprunner12 2 years, 12 months ago
Different Govts have been talking about public sector reform, right-sizing and HR training for 20 years.
But all they do is hire more unskilled people as 52 weeks workers and then "confirm" them as P&P before elections.
It's a shame, as it's only a ploy with NO real plan in place, as 40% of these Govt workers are not skilled or capable of doing their "job descriptions".
This MP is talking what no Govt has the guts to really do. Good luck ..... She may find herself without a post soon
sheeprunner12 2 years, 12 months ago
Truth is that Govt is trying to hire more people to bring the unemployment rate down. But it's creating more public sector debt and unproductive work ethic, as most of these new hires are untrainable. This all goes back to poor home training and poor education
TalRussell 2 years, 12 months ago
Think about it. The Guardian's Revolution Show's substitute comrade excitable sister talkie rerun host, gone got herself all mixed-up.
The kind of Culture the excitable sister is reminiscin' about is not a school teachable subject and everything else like this and that, be like signing up a dance class of god-fearing Presbyterians ― Yes?
hrysippus 2 years, 12 months ago
the gubment saw that the election soon come; .And knowing that most all were dumb, They hired these persons to secure their vote; who cared 'bout the civil service bloat? who cares if they had nothing to do? No cares when you really haven't got a single clue? D minus is the way to live, When you can borrow what you give.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 12 months ago
There will always be a need to hire people every year no matter how bloated the service is. People retire, they get sick, get fired, have accidents and also die. Also environments can change and you need people with new skillsets. So the hirings by themselves arent the issue, its the strategy thats in question, are you hiring for the right positions with the right people possessing the right skills
sheeprunner12 2 years, 12 months ago
Doctors, nurses & teachers are leaving the public system everyday. But Govt not hiring any of them. They hire security, janitress, clerks etc in minimum wage temporary positions to find jobs for the unwashed masses.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 12 months ago
precisely, the "strategy" is wrong
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