By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE the Minnis administration’s criticism of the previous government’s hiring practices, there are plans to allocate $8m for new hires in the upcoming fiscal year in addition to the 1,600 people re-engaged since 2017.

Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle said yesterday, this was part of the government’s push to address human resources matters within the service.

In the 2018/2019 fiscal year alone he said “1,217 persons were re-engaged bringing the total to 1,600 since coming to office.”

There were also over 300 new appointments on temporary month-to-month terms or on 12 months’ probation, 249 appointments to the permanent and pensionable establishment, 422 confirmations in appointments and 53 engagements on contract.

He said an estimated 450 people left the public service in the last fiscal year. However, Mr Rolle did not specify the circumstances under which these people departed.

“While we place emphasis on training, developing and improving the current staff compliment of the public sector, the people’s budget 2019/2020 also makes provision for the future,” he told the House of Assembly.

“Eight million dollars has (been) allocated for new hires throughout the service with an additional $3m earmarked especially for the recruitment of college graduates.”

He called this a critical Minnis administration programme because it showed a “human connection” to the next generation of leaders. Two hundred college graduates will be accommodated in this initiative.

These remarks give greater insight regarding manpower in the public service since Mr Rolle told The Tribune in April that a “large number” of the 9,000 people hired under the Christie administration had been re-engaged by the Minnis administration.

At the time, he did not offer much detail outside of referring to the Ministry of Education and its “comprehensive training programme”, which was implemented to cause persons to learn specific trades and skills.

He said if successful in completing the one-year probationary period, they would be engaged on a “full-time basis”.

The comments drew criticism from PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell who said Mr Rolle’s admission flew in the face of the Minnis administration’s “propaganda and false narrative” on those job hires, but also “proves the PLP was right in hiring these Bahamians”.

“What a difference 23 months makes,” Mr Mitchell added.

In March 2018, Mr Rolle told the House of Assembly that an estimated 70 percent of the contracts awarded to people for government employment under the Christie administration did not go through the Ministry of the Public Service.

This allowed Cabinet ministers to act “willy-nilly”, he said at the time.

And in January 2018, Attorney General Carl Bethel insinuated that a job reduction of more than 2,500 people in the public sector, as reflected in a previous labour force survey, netted more than $75 million in government savings.