The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

On October 29, The Freeport News reported the story of ten caterers that were dismissed from the school lunch programme in Grand Bahama.

These women crying out for help, saying “something must be done to help us”.

They claimed that on October 23, they were unceremoniously fired without notice by the Department of Social Services. On that day, they were called to a meeting at the Department of Social Services offices and told that they were no longer needed.

Additionally, they were told that they would be contacted when their cheques and termination letters were ready. The paper reported that it contacted the Department of Social Services and spoke with Paula Marshall who referred them to the Minister for Grand Bahama, Dr Michael Darville.

Dr Darville, belatedly, issued a statement to the Freeport News saying in part that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has now taken on administrative oversight for the National Lunch Programme which was previously managed by the Department of Social Services and that contracts had been awarded to 13 new vendors on Grand Bahama to provide hot meals to students currently on the programme.

Dr Darville did not even attempt to give cause for the firing of the ten vendors. He didn’t because, clearly, there was no cause. This act was very clearly politically motivated. The ten women are thought to be opposition supporters while their replacements are of course, supporters of the PLP. Since these ten women had provided such exemplary service, as Dr Darville indicated in his bogus and belated statement, why were they fired and 13 new people hired to replace them?

Why were the ten not retained and three new vendors added to their ranks? I very strongly suspect that the move to switch oversight of this programme from the Department of Social Services to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology was cooked up for the sole purpose of providing “cover” for the firing of these women. This is unfair, this is unjust and should be unacceptable to us all.

Dr Darville concluded saying, “I wish to thank the staff of the Ministry of Education, the Department of Social Services, the Department of Environmental Health Services and our administrators for ensuring that this process went seamlessly.” Ten women with bills to pay and families to feed have been suddenly deprived of their livelihood and he calls the process seamless?! What it is, is shameless: a shameless act of political victimisation.

By taking this action Dr Darville and his colleagues are upholding a grand PLP tradition. Throughout its history there have been innumerable accounts of Bahamians being victimised by the PLP. Bahamians have, by and large, remained silent as their families, friends and colleagues have been victimised.

This is wrong. Such blatant political victimisation and injustice as was perpetrated against these women should always be challenged and ought to forever be condemned.

CORNELL STUART

Freeport, Grand Bahama,

November 10, 2015.