STATEMENT BY FRED MITCHELL MP FOX HILL

OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE

ON MISCELLANEOUS PUBLIC SERVICE MATTERS

18th May 2011

House of Assembly

Nassau

Good morning members of the media and thanks for coming.

I begin with the tragic and untimely death of Mr. Cartwright, a public service employee whose life was unlawfully taken in the line of duty. On behalf of the Leader, the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie and the entire PLP family, I offer condolences to the Cartwright family. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this very difficult period.

While the Ministry of National Security, through the RBPF, offers security tips and guidelines to business owners on how to mitigate the risk of robbery, the government neglected to provide adequate protection to one of its own while executing a high risk task. What is more disgraceful is that the Minister of National Security has not publicly spoken out on policy and process changes going forward that would ensure the personal security and safety of government employees performing high risk activities such as the transfer of money. The Minister needs to do this immediately.

I turn my attention to the Attorney General’s Office. I wish to respond to the statement made by the Attorney General John Delaney and the Director of Public Prosecutions Vinette Graham Allen at their press conference on Wednesday 11th May. Their comments were designed to answer the complaints and concerns of citizens about the fact that in the ten day period before their press conference, three cases had been dismissed by the courts without going to the jury for a decision. These dismissals took place against the backdrop of a rising concern in the country that since the FNM has been in power there have been 366 murders in The Bahamas. The government appears to be helpless in the face of what is taking place. The Criminal Justice system and the courts are key to cutting down on the number of homicides in the country.

I respond because one of the key components of the criminal justice system is the police force. The police force appears to us to have been the bright spot in an otherwise grim picture, in the sense that they have been quite skilled, quick and adept at solving the crimes and bringing them to the courts. It was therefore quite amazing to hear both the Attorney General and his DPP blame the police for the ineptness of the prosecution system headed by the two of them.

We in the PLP decry the tactic of blame the police. This is not a time to blame the police. This is the time for Mr. Delaney and his DPP to fix the problems.

What is also amazing is that one of the solutions they have to fix the problem is what they are calling a Criminal Case Management Unit which will have (surprise, surprise) the novel idea of prosecutors being involved at the start of investigations. The press should be reminded that this was the programme of Swift Justice Initiative left in place by the last PLP Attorney General Allyson Maynard Gibson, and which fell victim to the Stop, Review and Cancel programme of the incoming FNM administration. So it has now taken them four years to get right back to what the PLP left in place.

SOCIAL WORKERS

Our spokesperson on Social Service, the former Social Service Minister and MP for Yamacraw Melanie Griffin has already commented on the PLP’s concern for the plight of social workers.  I want to add my voice to that from the public service perspective.  It is simply unseemly for Social Workers who are bearing the brunt of the increased poverty which this government has wrought on the Bahamians society, to have to take to the streets in order to get some measure of justice and improvement in the terms and conditions of their employment.

Further, I am calling on the Social Service Minister to re-instate forthwith Sandra MacDonald to the payrolls of the department’s work programme where he had been employed at the Elizabeth Estate Children’s Home. Ms. MacDonald was charged with manslaughter by negligence in the death of her daughter. I warned the government not to bring the charge. I wrote the Attorney General warning him about this, that the charge was ill conceived. In the end, the Crown was unable to produce witnesses and the case was dismissed against her and the father of the child. In the meantime, Ms. MacDonald has been without work and the Department cannot say when she will return to work. She has other mouths at home to feed. I call on justice for Ms. McDonald.

A final note on Social Services: It has come to our attention that social workers who prepare the pre sentencing reports are now routinely being threatened. They do not want to write reports as a result. In our view, this is as bad as threatening witnesses and killing witnesses. I call on the Ministers with responsibilities for both Social Services and National Security to investigate these very serious charges and bring swift resolution.

THE ABOLITION OF THE GENERAL WORK PERMIT

In a press conference last week the Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Minister for Immigration touted the new electronic work visas. This is to replace the old paper work permit. In the course of his conference he made the point that the general work permit is to be abolished.

I raise the following concern about this for the government’s consideration. The policy now is that when a Bahamian marries they can obtain a five year spousal permit which allows their spouse to work in The Bahamas and to enter, leave and reside. When that is up, the spouse (female) can apply for and get citizenship or permanent residence; a male can get permanent residence. The transition should be seamless but more often than not, it is not seamless.  In other words, spouses of Bahamians are often left with no status in the country because the Dept. of Immigration or the Cabinet simply cannot process the applications for permanent residences or citizenship efficiently enough. The general work permit has been used as a stop gap measure to provide some legal status for the spouse. Now that this is to be abolished what happens when as inevitably there will be, the spouse is left without status to live, work and enter The Bahamas.

End