And while Alfred Sears was brushing aside concerns that each of the ministerial offices is suffering because neither has his exclusive attention, his predecessor in the Free National Movement Administration was pushing for a Cabinet reshuffle.
Fuelled by the frustrations in the AG’s Office that forced more than a dozen legal officers to stage a sick-out on Monday and the “inefficiencies” in education, FNM Chairman Carl Bethel on Tuesday called for the Prime Minister to make an urgent decision.
“It is clear that neither the needs of law enforcement nor the needs of thousands of Bahamian children are well served by the continuance of the present situation,” Mr. Bethel pointed out in a press statement.
“Both the Ministry of Education and the Office of the Attorney General are vital, demanding and complex Ministries which require separate, full-time ministers.”
But Mr. Sears does not see it that way.
In fact in an interview with the Bahama Journal outside a Cabinet meeting yesterday, he dismissed such calls and concerns, even as he acknowledged there are problems in the judicial nerve center of the AG’s Office.
Mr. Sears met with some of his staff members on Tuesday, taking in their complaints and promising some remedies like the addition of at least five more attorneys by the end of the month.
It is a far cry from the 40 new hires that were initially promised. But budgetary constraints have eliminated that option. Minister Sears also added that because of those same constraints, salary increases have been put on hold.
There seem to be two sides to the problems plaguing the
Office of the Attorney General. On the one hand are frustrated legal personnel whose anxieties have once again reached a boiling point, while on the other hand managers dismiss claims that their lack of vision, focus and strategy are to blame.
But they have acknowledged that the legal officers are overworked.
Complaints about shortcomings in the AG’s Office have been lingering for years, with each successive administration vowing to make changes for the better.
On Monday incensed and overworked staff members in the legal affairs and public prosecutors office, fed up with their plight, staged a sick-out.
None of them wanted to go on the record personally to explain what was the last straw that precipitated the move. But they did disclose, in a collective statement, that they are unable to properly apply their expertise because they are severely overworked and management has no strategy for local or global operations – an allegation that the AG has staunchly denied.
As the former AG, Mr. Bethel is also familiar with the frustrations. He said management, staff and morale issues often require the day-today, hands-on involvement of a full-time AG, or they could get out of hand and erupt into embarrassing public displays like the recent mass sick-out.
“Effective law enforcement through the Office of the Attorney General is hampered by poor staffing and manpower decisions. The use of a Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions to serve as Lawyer to the Wreck Commission is a case in point,” Mr. Bethel said.
“This is a waste of competent legal skill that should be involved in prosecuting criminals and reducing the increasing backlog of criminal cases.”
Politicians on the opposite side of the political divide are not the only ones who have called for Mr. Sears’ ministerial portfolios to be separated.
The President of the Bahamas Union of Teachers Kingsley Black has also been agitating for the change, suggesting that pressing education matters are not being dealt with thoroughly.
But the government has not indicated that it will adopt any such move.
The Bahama Journal
