The Tribune

By MALCOLM STRACHAN

THE announcement last week that nearly 500 retired people have been re-employed by the government could be dismissed as a gotcha moment in politics – but it actually has deep ramifications across our society.

The news came as a response to questions tabled by the FNM in the House of Assembly – and let us pause for a moment to both consider that we may not have learned this otherwise and respect the function of questions being asked by the Opposition in the House, whichever stripe of government is in office. No question, no answer. Credit too to Pia Glover-Rolle for actually answering the question and not ducking it like some others have done.

A total of 491 retired public servants have been rehired by the Davis administration, of which 98 percent are receiving a salary in addition to the pension they draw from their retirement. Double dipping, as Dr Duane Sands noted in a voice note last week.

Why can they receive both? Well, in October 2021, the Cabinet reversed a position under the Minnis administration that ruled that retirees could not receive both a pension and a salary.

So this administration turned that around and then proceeded to hire nearly 500 people who would be a double burden on the Treasury.

What is the reason for hiring so many? Mrs Glover-Rolle talked about poor human resource management, saying there was a “hollow middle” caused by a lack of promotions and training.

She said: “A human resource structure has to have succession planning, it has to have clearly identified understudies, there has to be the pouring in of institutional knowledge from the persons that attrition out to the persons that remain in the system. That has not happened in our government agencies across the service and that is something that we have been working on in the past three years.”

She added that re-engaged retirees serve as consultants, passing on their expertise and experience, and that two ministries have submitted succession plans.

But hang on – do the numbers back that up?

In a press release on Friday, the Ministry of Labour and Public Service put some more details on the numbers – and the biggest sector by far for rehired public servants is the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

A total of 213 retired officers have been re-employed, said to have “helped to mitigate understaffing in some units, respond to surges in crime, and mentor new recruits”.

The police force has always had a steady pattern of recruitment, and a more sure knowledge of the period of service officers are likely to have. There is a structure to it – regimented is absolutely the right word for it – in terms of promotions and exposing staff to different areas in preparation for future roles. Where have the senior politicians been lamenting the failure of police leaders when it comes to recruitment and training? Have I missed the Minister of National Security lambasting previous commissioners for not doing that part of their job?

The second biggest category is the Justice Department – 24 people – and the Magistrate’s Courts with 19. Not far behind is the Attorney General’s Office with 13. The Bahamas has a significant number of lawyers in the population – why is it that these departments have not been able to take advantage of that fact?

One of the retired staff members to have been brought back was William Pratt, as immigration director. This was despite opposition from the Bahamas Customs Immigration and Allied Workers Union contesting the appointment, arguing that immigration officers cannot be contract workers. Last year, Immigration Minister Alfred Sears would not say when Mr Pratt would be replaced, saying it would be inappropriate to discuss specific personnel matters.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell was as bombastic as you would expect in the face of stories about rehires. He said that the workforce is growing older, with “a shortage of young labour”. He went so far as to blame the epidemics of HIV and cocaine in the 80s and 90s, saying: “Many grandparents had to raise their grandchildren. They had to remortgage their houses, and pay school fees, and when they came up to retirement they were still owing bills. So the public policy decision had to be to make sure these parents could raise their grandchildren.”

So which is it? Is the rehiring down to a public policy decision to help cover the costs of the drug years or is it down to poor succession planning? Because those two are not the same.

Incidentally, Mr Mitchell’s ministry, Foreign Affairs and Public Service, is the ministry with the highest number of retirees who have been rehired, with 15.

The suggestion that there is a shortage of labour is also one that the private sector often gets criticised for when it seeks to hire staff on work permits to make up for the shortfall.

Businesses face questions over who the nominated successor to a staff member on a work permit is, even if that designated successor has no actual interest in the role.

Meanwhile, in the public service, it seems, there is actually a financial incentive in failing to ensure your successor is trained properly. If there is no successor, you might get to come back on a juicy contract while still drawing your pension.

And in the process of bringing you back, a would-be successor is blocked again from gaining the experience that they need in the role.

Now if these returning staff members were being brought in for three months, say, specifically to train and work beside their successor to pass on specific knowledge of the role, you could see that.

But these are people being brought in with, as in the example of Mr Pratt, no date being revealed either publicly or to the workforce for the conclusion of their service.

The statement issued on Friday made much of the fact that the government has also hired 2,000 young Bahamians, though no age was given for the definition of young. Still, for the retired recruits to make up about a quarter as much as the new recruits still suggests an imbalance in the recruitment process.

Some more detail on the number of people in each department would be useful too, expressing the number of rehired workers as a percentage of the total staff. For example, the Ministry of Health has four rehired retirees, while the Office of the Prime Minister has six – what is each of those as a percentage of their respective workforces?

If the next generation of officers is not ready, that is an indictment on the generation that went before them.

It is up to all of us to prepare for what happens after we have gone. We never truly know the hour and the day we might be gone forever, and we should ensure others can carry on in our stead.

By saying the next set of leaders is not ready, it prompts the question – who will train the set after that? And after that?

These statistics have opened up a host of further questions – while showing exactly the reason why our Parliamentary processes are so important.