Friday, March 29, 2024

Ministry of the Public Service issues appointment letters

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Public officers who have been temporarily employed or acting in a post in the Public Service for three years or more before October 1, 2020, have begun receiving their appointment letters, according to director general of human resources in the Ministry of the Public Service, Gail Atkins.

The process was started on Monday, however, The Royal Barbados Police Force, Prison Service and people in Project Offices do not fall under the provisions of the Act and therefore will not benefit immediately.

“The Ministry of the Public Service has formed a committee to facilitate the process for issuing the letters to public officers and we have completed a number of posts already.

“We have begun to issue letters to the ministries, departments and agencies [MDA], and we will be calling each MDA to collect their letters to be distributed to the officers eligible under the Public Service (Appointments) Act, 2020,” Atkins said.

She explained that where no vacancy or relevant office exists, officers would be appointed to a supernumerary office by the Act. Therefore, officers would not be disadvantaged if there were insufficient vacancies for that post.

Parliament met last week and enacted the Act, to alter the Constitution to make provision for the appointment or promotion, as the case may be, of people who have been temporarily employed or acting in a post in the Public Service for three years or more on the date immediately preceding October 1, 2020.

Atkins said the Act stipulates that the person must be sitting in that office on October 1, 2020, and must have had three years’ continuous service immediately prior to that date. She noted that the Act identifies people who are ineligible for appointment at this time. They include a person who has disciplinary matters or against whom a disciplinary matter or process has been started; a person with an ongoing criminal matter; and a person with a conviction which has not been expunged from his/her criminal record.

Additionally, a person who is on medical leave for three months accumulatively in any one calendar year and has been processed by the Ministry of the Public Service for referral to a medical officer or a medical board; and a person who has a negative report or report of conduct which contravenes the Public Service Act, are not eligible for appointment.

The director general said the Act recognises that there may be situations where officers have a grievance arising out of that legislation and it provides redress.

“The Act states that if an officer is prejudiced by the operation of either Section 4 or 5 in respect of an appointment to an office by virtue of the provisions, the Governor General may appoint the officer to an office, the appointment of which results in the remedying of the prejudice.

“As a result, the Ministry of the Public Service has designed a form which will be used by officers who consider that they are so prejudiced, to apply to the Governor General for the remedying of the prejudice.”

A link to that form is now available, Atkins said.

Atkins said the ministry is aware of the concerns of public officers who have already been appointed and are awaiting their letters of confirmation. She said the Ministry was working to restructure the process so it could be shortened, where possible. Officers who fall into this category would be appointed on the date identified in their letters of appointment. (BGIS)

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