By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

THE government has scrapped the degree requirement that once blocked promotions inside the Bahamas Department of Corrections, a change National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said has helped unlocked more than 400 promotions so far — with another 400 expected.

Mr Munroe said the former academic rule, unique among the law enforcement agencies, created a years-long backlog and left key ranks underfilled, despite officers serving for decades.

“This is the only force that you require degrees to be promoted,” he said yesterday at the BDOCS Long Service and Good Conduct Awards Ceremony at Government House. “It is not required as a Defence Force or the Police Force.”

“You can have 15 years’ experience as a correctional corporal, knowing how to supervise persons and all of that, but unless you got that piece of paper that could have been an associate’s degree at looking at the sun, you could not be promoted.”

He said corrections had more than 1,000 personnel when the reforms began and that many officers had been stalled for years because they lacked academic credentials. The result, he said, was a hollowed-out supervisory tier.

“When I came, they must have had like three or four sergeants only, where they should have had like 60 or 70,” he said.

He said the government removed the degree requirement and introduced a new career path that recognises qualifications and experience. He said the revised framework now allows officers without degrees to rise based on service time and performance at their previous rank.

“We have career paths now where if you have the piece of paper, yes you can be promoted, but if you do not have the piece of paper, experience and the rank will qualify you,” he said.

The more than 400 promotions issued after the change included elevations across all ranks and the confirmation of trainees to full correctional officer status,” he added.

Mr Munroe said promotion exercises continue across all agencies under the Ministry of National Security, with evaluations underway in the remaining organisations.