NDP Cabinet lifts Public Service hiring freeze
The hiring freeze for the public service was imposed by the then Virgin Islands Party Government of Hon. Ralph T. O’Neal OBE, in 2010 to ensure that existing government employees will not be laid off and to control the growth of the Public Service.
However, in a Human Resources Circular No. 6 of 2012 dated May 4, 2012, to all Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Department entitled “Cessation of Hiring Freeze”, the Ag. Human Resources Director Mrs. Michelle Donovan-Stevens wrote that, “I am directed by the Acting Governor to notify you that Cabinet has lifted the hiring freeze from the Public Service which was agreed by Cabinet in 2010.”
According to the circular, it retracts all other directive on hiring freeze and as such all normal procedures for hiring in the public service has been reinstated.
VIP left country broke - Dr. Smith
Many in the community have now questioned the truthfulness of the Premier and Minister for Finance Dr. D. Orlando Smith’s statement when he told the public in a national address weeks after the 2011 general elections, that the now Opposition Party had left the country broke and in a 51 million dollar deficit.
Many are asking, if the country is broke where they would have gotten money from to hire over 15 consultants since taking office, including countless through statutory bodies, and now to lift the hiring freeze on the civil service which will certainly contribute to raising the cost of the recurrent budget.
On one hand, while lifting the freeze on hiring, they have recently cut 50 percent across the board on all public servants' increment. Earlier this year, to bring relief to businesses with the hope that it will trickle down to the customers, the Smith Administration implemented a Customs and Duties Bill that according to the Commissioner of Customs Wade Smith, will cost the government to lose an estimated $2.7 million to $3 million annually.
In additional to the public concerns about the mixed messages from the NDP Government and the many major capital projects on the table from the hospital, to new airport runway expansion and with promises of a Hospital for Virgin Gorda, new sporting facilities and a new performing arts center, and with the recently imposed financial protocols from the United Kingdom, many in the country have been calling for the Government to come clean on the true financial picture of the Virgin Islands.
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