Transfer Freeze Hits Resistance Inside Government Ranks

A government-wide freeze on public officers’ transfers is running into real-world resistance. Back in April, the Ministry of Public Service hit pause on all transfers, but now another ministry says that blanket approach isn’t working. Immigration CEO Tanya Santos argues the moratorium is tying their hands, especially when staffing gaps and leadership vacancies need urgent attention. She says even critical requests to move personnel, some to fill senior management roles, have been shot down. The result? A policy meant to streamline operations may now be creating new bottlenecks inside government.

 

Tanya Santos, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Immigration

“Recall that before that memo came out we at the immigration ministry had already sent out request to transfer. We have to do that by Public Service Regulations no later than the end of March. So we had already set out our schedule and transfer list and we sent them out. So people were going back to their home station. Some people were looking forward to going to another port. There are not many, but a few people who have expressed they would still be interested in moving. We have sent out some specific request through the Public Service, not specifically in immigration but in other department. Unfortunately, some of those are coming back negative, that the moratorium is still in place, so I don’t know how far we will get with that transfer. And in some instances we were sending senior officers, so some offices will be left without a senior officer. It is not practical for us and it could lead to further challenges like we always have. But in light of the decisions we can only try to negotiate again and try to convince some more that we need some of these people in these places and it is not a lot. I have received from immigration specifically, four and some of them we need. Some areas we have shortage, shortage of human resources. That was the idea to strengthen, like for example in our visa process, that is one of the area we get a lot of complaint and we know we need more human resources to keep up with he demand.”

 

CEO Santos says the ministry will be making further requests for transfers to address the labor shortages in specific departments.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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