The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

AS HUNDREDS of 52-week government job contracts continue to expire, State Finance Minister Michael Halkitis says the initiative is presently under review amid calls for the programme to be extended.

While Mr Halkitis made it clear that the government has no plans to continue beyond next year when the final agreements become null and void, he said respective Ministers in various agencies will choose permanent workers based on performance and provisions in budgets.

“We are still trying to get a handle on the entire programme with specifics on numbers and how many persons are still enrolled,” he said.

“The programme, however, will not be extended. Ministers will be left to decide who’ll be hired at the different ministries based on how persons performed for the entire year and if there is money in the budget to pay them.”

Mr Halkitis’ comments came in response to a widespread belief that the programme came to an end last Friday leaving hundreds of persons unemployed.

The initiative, which was announced by former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham was initially budgeted at $25 million. In August 2011, hundreds of persons assembled for the programme’s first cycle at the Sheraton Hotel, Cable Beach to begin training for the work force. In total, an estimated 3,000 people were enrolled. 

Further, the programme was structured to include three components. They included job readiness, which enabled persons under 30-years-old to receive basic work force experience through structured work shops and job placement. Another component allowed unemployed Bahamians to work in industries, including tourism and industrial trades, that they might not have easily got into.

The job training level then gave persons over aged 30 the opportunity to enhance existing skills through study and work placement.

However, upon taking office, Prime Minister Perry Christie revealed that the initiative had ballooned to almost $50 million.

In delivering his budget communication, Mr Christie said on May 30: “We will eschew job programmes of the type introduced by the previous administration, which ballooned from an initial estimate of $25 million to some $48 million, all the while lacking any real focus on viable, long-term employment.”

The FNM has since defended their efforts saying that as unemployment reached high levels, persons needed jobs.

Opposition Senator Zhivargo Laing at the time said that a large number had been hired permanently by private sector companies.