By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

TRANSPORT and Local Government Minister Renward Wells yesterday announced his ministry has launched an investigation into claims of a mass shredding exercise underway at the General Post Office.

Mr Wells could not provide any details outside Parliament yesterday when asked by reporters whether shredding had been outsourced to a private company, adding the ministry would release a press statement on the matter.

The claim was lodged by Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) President Kimsley Ferguson in a report by Eyewitness News this week.

Mr Wells said: “I am being advised that there is a process by which all post offices discard certain kinds and types of mail, as minister I’m drilling down into that. The ministry will be making a statement very soon, so we will be passing that out to the media hopefully by the end of the day on the situation. I can’t speak to the claims made by the union and others, but the ministry will be putting out a formal statement. 

“I don’t believe that there will be any officer in the post office that will do anything untoward,” Mr Wells continued, “that is not in the legal framework of the way the post office operates. So the very assertion that members would be shredding important mail is concerning because I do not believe that that speaks to the character of the workers in the post office that I have seen.

“We will be getting back to you with all of the facts in a written statement and then we will be able to proceed from there,” Mr Wells said.

Meanwhile, Mr Ferguson told reporters earlier this week: “Instructions were given by the postmistress to bring mail from various post offices to the East Hill Location to have them shredded. This is indeed a concern because I’ve been having challenges with my mail personally and so has the union.

“We haven’t been getting them in a timely fashion. The concern is, they are pertinent documents that may be in the mail that may have been pending for some time that may either take the life of an individual into destruction or that can take them in a positive direction. I would like this information confirmed as to who would’ve given instructions.”

Mr Ferguson also said the backlog of mail has been “tremendous,” saying “the accumulation of mail is to the extent where there is a mountain of it to the floor and you have to walk around it.”

When asked whether the backlog was insurmountable, Mr Wells said: “I don’t know if I would use the term ‘insurmountable’ but the backlog was extreme, as we all know, excessively extreme, and as I said I’d like to commend the postal workers who have been working extremely hard and the difficult circumstances to alleviate that situation.”

Operations at the General Post Office are expected to move from East Hill Street to the Town Centre Mall early next year.