–says it was nothing but a ‘front’ for the Coalition

THE over $600 million that was spent on establishing the Bertram Collins Staff College (BCSC) was nothing but a political gimmick, he says, but now that things have changed, the facility will be put to better use. This was Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo’s position on Tuesday about the College’s closure during a press conference called to address the matter at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal. Located at Ogle on the East Coast Demerara, the Bertram Collins College was launched in November 2016 under the APNU+AFC to provide a one-year cadet

programme to train entry-level public servants to carry out their functions. However, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has long since maintained that the College was not only a political tool, but “poorly structured” at that. “[It] was a front for an APNU unit; Bertram was running the APNU campaign; and they were spending $600 million to do that,” Mr. Jagdeo said, adding: “We said we would shut it down since in the opposition days; we said we would save the $600 million and put it into more useful things. While it is closed, we will utilise the facility to train persons within the public sector.” According to reports, the College expended a whopping $175.8 million in 2017, and a further $143.6 million in 2018. The Cadets reportedly receive formal and informal training in 17 subject areas in preparation for landing a job in the public service.
“They recruited people, and while they were good young people, most of the persons bypassed people from public service,” Jagdeo said.

STOP TAKING APPLICANTS

According to reports in another section of the media, last December the College stopped taking in applicants, and last Friday, staff were given termination letters, effective from the end of this month. Jagdeo’s comments follow statements being issued by the Ministry of Public Service (MoPS), as well as the APNU+AFC’s former Minister of Public Service, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley and other opposition members, who have since challenged the closure. The MoPS is currently headed by Minister Sonia Parag. In its statement, the MoPS contends that contrary to rumours going the rounds on social media, the College’s “closure had absolutely no sinister or political motive behind it”. Sarabo-Halley, in her statement, described the closure as “a reprehensible act of political spite and malice”. However, the MoPS is contending that the College was used by the APNU+AFC to produce an outcome contrary to fair recruitment practices.
“Sixty persons were processed per year to enter the Public Service at a Clerk III position, bypassing those experienced in a Clerk II position who earned less, and in turn had to train the very persons coming out of the college,” the ministry said in its statement.

Though the College was touted by Sarabo-Halley as the premier training institution that was supposed to be used to train “all levels of the public service”, the current MoPS pointed out that only entry-level public servants were graduating from the institution. “The fact [that] these persons instead were only entering the public service at the entry level is a clear indication that the entity was never intended to be a national institution, but rather a political machinery of the APNU/AFC,” the MoPS said.
The MOPS further noted that “exorbitant” sums of money were being “bled from the Treasury” to upkeep the College, even though the ministry already had a functioning training division.
“The Staff College sought to duplicate and supersede the Ministry’s Training Division. For many years there existed, and still exists, an active Training Division at the Ministry of Public Service, which conducts induction and staff development programmes intended to achieve the very outcome of professionalism,” the MoPS said in its statement, adding:
“The Ministry also wishes to categorically state that in keeping with the Government’s manifesto and its wider vision for our country, there will be a structural overhaul in training programmes geared towards advanced national training in relevant and priority areas within the Public Sector which will be catered for in the 2021 budget.”