The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE public sector has been “burdened” with people with “legitimate expectations,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance K Peter Turnquest said yesterday, adding that his administration will “unfortunately” have to address the problem.

His statement is the latest hint from the Minnis administration of what could be in store for some contract workers as the new administration tries to reduce the burden.

“Our hope is to regularise as many of the contract workers as we can into the system,” he said. “It’s unfair for them to be hanging out there with no real safety and security as to their employment going forward.”

“ By the same token, we recognise that we will have to rationalise the public service. We cannot burden the Bahamian people with resources that we already have and that we may not need. That’s all part of this process we are going through, (finding the) right size of government. We have to figure out how we can reallocate some of that human resource. To the extent that we have excess capacity then we are going to have to deal with that.”

Mr Turnquest said while the government is “certainly not interested in putting anybody out of work,” particularly with respect to the lead up to the recent election where people were hired “indiscriminately,” his government will “look critically to ensure that these people were in fact necessary and where they weren’t we’ll see how we can best assist them to find employment within the service or externally.”

Mr Turnquest’s comments came during and after an event at the Hilton yesterday marking the launch of the Public Financial Management & Performance Monitoring Reform Project (PFM) which aims to reform public sector management to increase transparency and accountability and ensure value for money.

John Pinder, president of the Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU), conceded yesterday that some contracted workers may have to leave the service, many of them already finding their positions precarious.

“If you had been working for the government for less than 12 months and they wish to terminate you because they don’t need your services or you don’t meet requirements for unemployment they can do that without scrutiny,” he said. “I would recommend that the government look at them to see if they can work in the public sector in other ways. They can be recruited as police officers, prison officers, teacher assistants, etc.”

Most contracted workers––up to 90 per cent of them––are low level workers such as security guards and janitorial staff, he said.

During the budget debate, Minister of State for the Public Service Brensil Rolle revealed the government’s payroll increased by $10 million as new employees were hired in the final five months of the Christie administration.

That administration, during its tenure, hired 6,500 new public service workers, he said.