Weekly Column

The Government took an Amendment to the Public Service Act to Parliament this week. They are good at working hard at the things that further their own cause. Unfortunately for the public servants of this country, the DLP’s amendments have done nothing to benefit them.

Let us examine the promises first. In October 2007 in Toronto, David Thompson promised that once elected, the Democratic Labour Party would appoint all public servants who were in acting positions for more than two years. This was the classic back raise tactic, knowing as he did that the then Barbados Labour Party government was about to amend the law to appoint anyone acting for three years.

Worse though, Thompson had the opportunity to make good on this promise as part of his Amendment. Surprise, surprise he did nothing of the kind.

In December 2008, during debate on the BLP’s Amendment to the Act, Thompson severely criticized the BLP for amending the Act to include a code of conduct for civil servants - without imposing a Code of Ethics - including a declaration of assets on politicians.

We all know the promises by this Government to pass integrity legislation and a code of conduct for ministers within 100 days of coming to office. Two years after that promise, we are still waiting.

So what did they really do?

Apart from a number of totally innocuous amendments to prepositions and similar words, they buried three substantive changes among the fluff. The first removes the requirement for the Prime Minister to publish “by Order” in the Official Gazette - the creation of temporary posts in the public service. There can only be one construction put on this change, alarming as it is. It will allow the government to pack the civil service with its supporters without the transparency of having to publicize the fact.

Second, it has exempted new hires to acting posts for twelve months from the provisions of the recruitment code. Unsurprisingly, Thompson has preached, transparency and accountability and then done the opposite.

When you add this to their victimization of public officers at the National Conservation Commission and the Urban and Rural Commissions, you begin to see their plan to politicize the public service for their own ends.

In their shoddy haste, they also removed the power given in 2007 to the Public Service Commission to hire people with convictions for jobs where a previous brush with the law would not affect their ability to carry out a job effectively.

This is a backward step that will have far reaching consequences for many young people, who may have made a mistake in life and are trying, by having gainful employment, to turn their lives around. The waters are muddied.

There is no clarity as to what the law is given the decades only convention that these persons are not hired as public servants. There is to be no second chance for them with this Government. These are people who are often hard pressed to gain employment in the private sector. The government has no working programmes to assist them to be self-employed. They will be left to their own devices and may well find it easier to revert to criminal activity.

It would be bad enough if the Government simply did not care about the future of these people, at a time when they most needed help, but to use the civil service as their own private employment agency - solely to strengthen their own chances at re-election, because they are incapable of creating jobs elsewhere - is absolutely unforgivable

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