Minister of State for the Public Service Pia Glover-Rolle’s assertion that the Minnis administration hired people up to the day of the last election is “totally untrue” and her threat that some may be disengaged is a “disgraceful act of victimization”, former Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle said yesterday.
“This action by the minister of the public service is a disgraceful act of victimization of innocent Bahamians and we urge the PLP to immediately stop this practice and have these Bahamians return to work,” he said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Glover-Rolle said the government may have to lay off several people hired in the last eight weeks of the Minnis administration. She said some 40 employees are being paid to stay home because the government has no place to put them.
But the former minister said, “The Free National Movement condemns in the strongest terms the statement made by the minister of state for the public service that persons were hired up to the day of elections by the FNM government.
“Simply put, this statement is totally untrue and cannot be substantiated by the minister or anyone else in her ministry.
“Perhaps the minister was reporting and reflecting on the way business was done by the PLP leading up to the elections in May 2017, when scores of individuals were sent to various ministries and departments on the days up to and indeed the day of the general elections.
“Alternatively, the minister may have simply been reflecting on how days before the 2017 elections the PLP gave individuals three and six months contracts that expired in June and July 2017, days after they would have lost the general elections.”
Rolle said, “We did not terminate or threaten to terminate anyone. The most egregious statement by the minister was that many of the individuals hired are at home and have nothing to do and would consequently be terminated.”
As noted, Glover-Rolle said, “I will tell you, there are persons that are hired that were hired in the last eight weeks that are still at home, that are being paid but there is nowhere to place them.”
She said that in some instances, “there is absolutely nowhere where we can place them”.
“We’re still investigating some methods that maybe we can engage them for another program but there are a few and, as a result, we have to do what is best for the taxpayers’ money and we may have to disengage some of those persons,” she said.
But Rolle said less than 10 people “have been signing into the Ministry of the Public Service and then they have not been properly placed because they were required to be vaccinated because of the agency where they were assigned for consideration”.
“The minister was perhaps referring to the 20 persons in Grand Bahama that they directed to stay home even though official letters of employment for these individuals were received by the office of the prime minister and the public service before elections took place.”
The government is assessing more than 400 promotions and hires that took place in the last seven to eight weeks of the Minnis administration, Glover-Rolle has said.
The promotions and hires under review were halted following the general election.
The post Rolle fires back appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/rolle-fires-back/
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