'ELECTION UPGRADES' DELAYED FOR CHECKS: Govt says it's stepping in to confirm last-minute promotions above board

Mon, Sep 27th 2021, 08:13 AM

FOREIGN Affairs and Public Service Minister Fred Mitchell said promotions granted in the last few weeks by the Minnis administration have been temporarily halted to give the new government an opportunity to review them to ensure nothing "nefarious" has taken place.

Last week, letters were issued stating that promotions at the Water and Sewerage Corporation, which should have taken effect on September 1, were now being put on hold.
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#Yesterday, Mr Mitchell told the press the action was taken “out of an abundance of caution”.
#“What seems to have happened, looking at the actions of the last weeks of the (Minnis) administration, was that there was an attempt, it appears, and I don’t want to say it’s so until we actually know the facts, to put what we call a poison pill,” he said.
#“So, the idea was that it would hobble any new administration and two things seemed to be in play. One is to offer an incentive for people to vote for the past administration and then secondly, (the) poison pill, so that presumably those who were promoted or hired were ‘supporters of the last administration’ and would therefore end up causing problems for the new administration.
# “So, I think out of an abundance of caution, you can’t say that it’s all been rolled back, but an instruction was issued through Cabinet to simply put everything on hold until we can get an opportunity to have a look at what’s actually going on and then make decisions going forward.”
# Mr Mitchell said when he assumed his office at the Department of Public Service, he found “stacks of promotions,” many of which he said he suspected were “long overdue”. He said in view of this fact, he did not want to put a “negative imprint” on the situation.
# When asked how long the hold would be, he said he could not say for certain.
# “I’m not sure,” he told reporters. “But in my case, I’m hoping the state minister is going to bring the paper on Tuesday because I don’t want people’s lives on hold and you have to be very careful. For example, you can’t assume that everybody who was promoted under the last regime was an FNM supporter or hire. You shouldn’t because it just doesn’t add up. And in a small society, everybody is connected to everyone so you don’t want to be inflicting harm or hurt on anyone and that’s the Prime Minister’s main focus at the moment. So, it’s just really to have a look at it and see that there’s nothing.”

Last week, letters were issued stating that promotions at the Water and Sewerage Corporation, which should have taken effect on September 1, were now being put on hold.

Yesterday, Mr Mitchell told the press the action was taken “out of an abundance of caution”.

“What seems to have happened, looking at the actions of the last weeks of the (Minnis) administration, was that there was an attempt, it appears, and I don’t want to say it’s so until we actually know the facts, to put what we call a poison pill,” he said.

“So, the idea was that it would hobble any new administration and two things seemed to be in play. One is to offer an incentive for people to vote for the past administration and then secondly, (the) poison pill, so that presumably those who were promoted or hired were ‘supporters of the last administration’ and would therefore end up causing problems for the new administration.

“So, I think out of an abundance of caution, you can’t say that it’s all been rolled back, but an instruction was issued through Cabinet to simply put everything on hold until we can get an opportunity to have a look at what’s actually going on and then make decisions going forward.”

Mr Mitchell said when he assumed his office at the Department of Public Service, he found “stacks of promotions,” many of which he said he suspected were “long overdue”. He said in view of this fact, he did not want to put a “negative imprint” on the situation.

When asked how long the hold would be, he said he could not say for certain.

“I’m not sure,” he told reporters. “But in my case, I’m hoping the state minister is going to bring the paper on Tuesday because I don’t want people’s lives on hold and you have to be very careful. For example, you can’t assume that everybody who was promoted under the last regime was an FNM supporter or hire. You shouldn’t because it just doesn’t add up. And in a small society, everybody is connected to everyone so you don’t want to be inflicting harm or hurt on anyone and that’s the Prime Minister’s main focus at the moment. So, it’s just really to have a look at it and see that there’s nothing.”

 

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