By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

LONG Island MP Adrian Gibson has accused the former Christie administration of hiring nearly 40 people in the run up to the May 10 general election with the aim of “influencing” voters.

Mr Gibson said 39 persons were hired “in the last two weeks or so before the election, and in the case of one of them, the day before.” The requirements for being hired, Mr Gibson said, were to be “open PLP supporters” and to “show loyalty in a tangible way”.

Speaking in the House of Assembly on Monday, Mr Gibson said that those hired, “barring a small handful”, were poll workers at divisions one through nine for the Progressive Liberal Party’s candidate for Long Island Glendon Rolle.

Mr Gibson further claimed that Mr Rolle and a “contracted Ministry of Finance employee” were the ones “galvanising and leading the charge” in a “government vehicle” to hire the 39 persons.

Mr Gibson also questioned the hiring of eight persons to work as security guards at the island’s Stella Maris airport, four of whom he claimed were hired “a week or two before Election Day.” To substantiate his claims, Mr Gibson produced the master payroll for 39 persons enrolled on the “National Empowerment Placement Programme” for Long Island, which was tabled in Parliament.

“Can you imagine that, Mr Speaker?” Mr Gibson asked. “A candidate, and a Ministry of Finance officer handpicking whom he desires to employ, notwithstanding the fact that he himself had not yet received a single vote.

“How does one justify the $734,351.20 per month of salaries from the public purse?” he asked. “As it stands, none of these 39 persons have letters of appointments, and heads of government offices tell me that they were afraid of victimisation and had to accept this.

“So now you have respective departments overloaded. I have spoken to department heads. There’s no written evidence of any hirings that was authorised by a permanent secretary or director.

“…Mr Speaker, this was a clear intent of influencing the electorate,” Mr Gibson said. “The public purse was clearly used as a piggy bank to influence the results. This is one of the most egregious examples of an abuse of the public purse.”

In response, Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin, former minister of transport and aviation, denied the claims, asserting that while those persons “might have been posted at the airport”, they would not have been hired to work as security guards “in the absence of proper training”.

“There is no officer that was hired by the Department of Civil Aviation or any aviation entity to work at the airport within days of the election,” she said. “What the member laid in this Parliament does not support what he has asserted. What he laid was that people were hired under a job programme and were posted at varied places. That’s not what he told this Parliament.”

Mrs Hanna Martin said that security officers hired to work at any airport in The Bahamas would only be “people who are trained and vetted” by the relevant officials and persons who are “trained to operate in a specific way in this country at ports of entry”.

“…They would not have been deployed as airport security officers in the absence of proper training,” she added. “They might have been posted at the airport, but they would not have been engaged as airport security officers, and what the member has laid before this Parliament does not support his assertion.”

In April, Mr Rolle denied claims made by former Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner that he and the PLP had “hand-picked” nearly 30 people out of the constituency for new employment opportunities in an attempt to attract support on the island.

Earlier that month, Mrs Butler-Turner blasted the Christie administration over the reported launch of a jobs programme in her former constituency, claiming at the time that 28 people were handpicked for new employment as the election was approaching.