Commodore Tellis Bethel.
By Rashad Rolle
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
THE Minnis administration gave no answers about Commodore Tellis Bethel’s job status yesterday despite the scheduled end of his three-month vacation leave.
National Security Minister Marvin Dames did not respond to calls or messages. Neither Commodore Bethel nor Deputy Commander Raymond King, the acting commodore, could be reached.
Communication representatives throughout the administration and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force offered no comment.
Eugene Poitier, permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security, immediately hung the phone up after telling The Tribune: “I have no comment about anything concerning Mr Bethel and I’m very busy, okay.”
Commodore Bethel began his leave on October 15, 2019. Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis claimed this reflected his administration’s policy of not letting officers accumulate so much vacation leave that they require substantial payments before they retire.
Captain Samuel Evans, former deputy commander of the RBDF, was forced into retirement in October. He was paid out the remainder of his contract. In November, he dismissed Dr Minnis’ claim about accumulated leave as disingenuous. The administration is facing lawsuits from officers at the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Department of Corrections who say the government illogically used its vacation leave policy to sideline officers it wants removed from leadership positions.
In the past three months, Mr Dames has declined to give answers on what the future holds for Commodore Bethel.
Asked Tuesday about the RBDF chief’s expected return to work, he said: “We shall see.”
“As we move each day, we will certainly keep you appraised,” he said. “We want to be respectful to the commodore. We want to be respectful to other officers within our law enforcement agencies as we should be.”
In a lawsuit filed recently, Assistant Commissioner of Police Kendal Strachan asked the Supreme Court to declare the forced leave he took last year as administrative leave and not vacation leave. He wants the court to declare his transfer to the Ministry of Social Services unlawful.
Comments
sealice 4 years, 7 months ago
Please once people heard the treatment he was getting the job offers started rolling in - he's probably got so much money staring at him at the table he don't even hear his cell ringin......come back come back we wus wrong....
birdiestrachan 4 years, 7 months ago
Dames should be ashamed of himself. he may feel powerful now , but it will not last.
He sows the wind. it is guarantied he will reap the whirl wind.
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 7 months ago
Bethel's time came and went. He was never worthy of the title of Commodore. His record of unpreparedness and underperformance during the height of the Dorian ordeal are well noted.
Bethel was incapable of doing whatever it took to ensure most of his ships were kept seaworthy and ready for duty at a moments notice, ergo he besmirched the RBDF and let the Bahamian people down in their desparate time of need in the immediate aftermath of Dorian. Thank God for the intervening efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard.
And let's not forget that Bethel also possessed a most dreadful record in helping us preserve our nation's sovereignty by fighting the invasion and onslaught of our country by illegal Haitian aliens. No, Bethel was never worthy of the title of Commodore.
TalRussell 4 years, 7 months ago
Seems so many in command something working at leisure colony's minister security, including prison's chief, be's working under strain career uncertainty - same symptom likes job uncertainty Doc Duane has nervously found heself in, since the leaking Weed report. Cant write this. You just, can't.
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