The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRESS secretary Keishla Adderley said the Office of the Attorney General is reviewing a 2021 Supreme Court ruling to determine whether it prohibits William Pratt’s recent appointment as director of the Department of Immigration.

The Bahamas Customs Immigration and Allied Workers Union (BCIAWU) filed a trade dispute last month contesting Mr Pratt’s appointment, saying immigration officers cannot be contract workers.

When the union challenged Clarence Russell’s appointment as acting director of immigration in 2021, it obtained a declaration from the Supreme Court that the power to make appointments to public offices belongs to the Governor-General on the advice of the Public Service Commission. The Office of the Attorney General did not fight the BCIAWU in court and was ordered to pay the union $10k in costs.

Mr Russell worked in the Passport Office before he became a contracted immigration director.

During a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday, Ms Adderley suggested the 2021 case differs from the current matter, an argument the union rejects.

Ms Adderley said the union’s concerns were “born out of a ruling that was made sometime back in reference to a person who was appointed as immigration director who was not within the Immigration Department, and there was a ruling that obviously said that that should not happen”.

She said: “Now, Mr William Pratt, who is acting immigration director, is or was within the Immigration Department, a career immigration officer. Now, what the attorney general’s office is doing at this point is reviewing the ruling to see if it applies under these circumstances.”

BCIWU president Deron Brooks countered yesterday that it doesn’t matter that Mr Pratt was once in the Department of Immigration.

“Mr Pratt had retired,” he said, “and now he is coming back as a contract worker.”

Ms Adderley said Mr Pratt is the interim leader of the Department of Immigration. She said the government is working on a succession plan “so that a permanent immigration director will be put in place”.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis told The Tribune recently that Ms Ferguson retired willingly. He did not say whether she was asked to go.