The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said new Foreign Service orders will be gazetted by the end of the week, introducing reforms to make most contract officers permanent and pensionable while protecting non-political staff from dismissal.

He said the orders, made under the Foreign Service Act 2025, are intended to modernise the country’s diplomatic service and establish a clearer framework for its operation.

“These orders are pursuant to the Foreign Service Act 2025, this achievement marks a major milestone in the long-standing effort to modernise the legal, administrative and operational framework governing the Bahamas Foreign Service,” he said.

Mr Mitchell said the regulations will provide detailed provisions governing appointments, postings, discipline, promotions and the overall management of the restructured Department of Foreign Affairs and its personnel.

“The Foreign Service orders will give full regulatory effect to the Foreign Service Act 2025, providing detailed provisions governing appointments, postings, discipline, promotions, and the overall administration and management of the restructured Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Foreign Service personnel,” he said.

He added that the framework is aligned with international standards while responding to the country’s evolving diplomatic and consular needs.

“Together, the Act and its orders establish a modern and coherent framework aligned with international best practices, while responding to the evolving diplomatic, consular and strategic needs of the Bahamas,” he said.

“The completion of the orders follows several years of sustained technical work, consultation and policy development, culminating in a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework designed to strengthen professionalism, accountability, transparency and career development within the Foreign Service.”

Mr Mitchell said a key factor shaping the reforms was the treatment of contract officers following the 2017 change in administration.

“I would, however, like to add disaggregate from this general statement that my main concern about bringing these orders into force is that when we left off, when I left office in the year 2017, my predecessor came in, and all those people who were at the non-political level, junior officers, were selectively dismissed because they were on contracts,” he said.

“There's a history of contracts in the Foreign Service and in the public service generally, because the procedures for hiring people at the Public Service Commission are often so torturous, and they take such a long time, governments decided to use the contractual provisions to bring people that we needed into the service.

“So that was a quicker possibility, because the cabinet can make a decision to bring people in on contract. These contracts were for three years, and they could be terminated with a particular notice period. It appears that our successors in office determined that these people were somehow political supporters of the PLP and simply got rid of them. It's my view that this is this was wrong.”

He said the new orders are designed to prevent a repeat of that situation by ensuring that contract officers who are not politically appointed are made permanent and pensionable, with only those appointed by the Prime Minister at the political level excluded.

Mr Mitchell said some of the dismissed officers challenged their terminations and were later reinstated, though he was unable to provide figures.

He also argued for a separate regulatory framework for the Foreign Service, distinct from the wider public service.

“The Foreign Service has always been treated as well or was always part of the public service, and the problem with the public service rules is that they are complicated, arcane and take a long time to get executed,” he said.

“So what we've been trying to say over the course of a number of terms is that you needed, as in most other states, a separate set of rules to apply for foreign service orders for foreign service officers, and largely because, under our constitution articles, 112, and 111, the Prime Minister is actually responsible for the disposition of officers in their service overseas.”

“These rules are meant to reflect that separate and discrete pattern which applies to foreign service officers and to make it possible for the execution of the work of the Foreign Service to be done, to be done with dispatch,” he said.