By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

IN the lead-up to the May 10 general election, more than 40 people were hired as contract workers in the MICAL constituency, The Tribune understands.

Minister of State for the Public Service and National Insurance Brensil Rolle confirmed to this newspaper that between 41 and 42 people were hired in the Mayaguana, Inagua, Crooked Island, Acklins and Long Cay constituency before the general election.

He confirmed that the workers were approved through the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Local Government.

The employees are a part of nearly 2,000 contracted workers who were brought on as pre-election hires, The Tribune understands.

A resident of the constituency claimed an elderly man had been hired to guard a graveyard in MICAL, however this was not confirmed.

Former MICAL MP V Alfred Gray could not be reached up to press time.

This comes a little more than two weeks after Mr Rolle revealed to Parliament that the government's payroll increased by $10m as new employees were hired in the final five months of the former Christie administration.

Mr Rolle said that the Christie administration hired 6,500 new public service workers during the past five years. He suggested that the new administration will take a more rigorous approach to hiring people and that some who were hired under questionable circumstances under the former administration could be terminated.

"Some burdens we cannot carry at the public's expense," he said during his contribution to the 2017-2018 budget debate.

"The public service, in salaries alone, ballooned by $10m between December 2016 and May of this year," he said. "That's $10m -- new employment -- nothing to do with hurricane repairs."

"Indeed, the public service has ballooned by 6,500 new employees during the watch of the previous administration."

To highlight the questionable nature of some hiring practices, he revealed that under the previous administration a security guard was hired to guard a police station. And such was the loose nature of the process that some people were hired but never received a salary, he said.

Given his experience in the public sector as a former teacher and a former undersecretary in the Ministry of Works, he said the hiring process under the former administration departed from tradition.