The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PIA Glover-Rolle, State Minister for Public Service, said yesterday that government is still reviewing all public sector promotion and hiring exercises carried out in the lead up to the general election, saying all assessments will be conducted fairly and in a transparent manner.

She said the Public Service Ministry is assessing more than 500 workers who were either hired or promoted in the last six to eight weeks.

Speaking to reporters before yesterday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, Mrs Glover-Rolle said the government remains committed to treating everyone equally and will do its due diligence to ensure that no one is disenfranchised.

“We’re not doing anything peculiar,” she said yesterday. “In any new administration, we would assess what is taking place, especially what has taken place in the last six to eight weeks. So we have placed all pending promotions and hiring on hold. I am making an assessment in the shortest possible time. I’m working very hard to make sure that the assessments are done in a fair time because obviously, persons are waiting.

“It’s not our intention to disenfranchise. We have to make sure that policy is being conformed to. We have to make sure that these promotions are being issued on merit and, of course, we also want to continue, and I continue to say we want to consider that we make sure that our personnel is not disenfranchised by a long wait so the process is going very smoothly and the assessments are being made.”

Asked how many promotions and hirings were under review, the state minister told reporters: “There are a few hundred in the last six to eight weeks and then prior to that I want to say that there are even more hundreds that were held up over the years so it’s not only going to be a process of ensuring that the backlog is handled, but we’re going to look to make the process smoother for the future because it’s systemic that there’s a backlog so we need to see the processes that we’re going to put in place that will eliminate the backlog for the future. People put in the work in the public service so we want to make sure that we’re duly compensating them and providing the rewards as necessary.”

Mrs Glover-Rolle could not say when the assessments will be completed, however, only telling reporters that officials are aiming to have it done in the “quickest possible time.”

Shortly after being elected to office last month, the Davis administration placed all public service promotions granted in the weeks before the election on hold in what officials said would allow the government to review them to ensure nothing “nefarious” has taken place.

Former Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle has since defended the recent promotions, insisting the previous government was simply acting on years’ old recommendations that were in some cases left behind by the Christie administration.

Yesterday, Mrs Glover-Rolle also highlighted the need for the public system to be revamped and fully modernised.

This, she added, will not only improve services but also help eliminate the backlog in promotions among other things.

“The public service needs a re-invention, re-imagination,” Mrs Glover-Rolle added. “We need to come into the 21st century and that starts with digitisation of our files. A lot of the hold up in the process is, of course, waiting for paper files, trying to locate them and then the process of going through them.

“In our former administration, we began a process of digitisation of files. That was halted in 2017. We are seeking to advance that process again. It was almost done, and we want to make sure that we bring the public service in the 21st century. When we do that, it brings efficiency, and it brings effectiveness.”