It may be a time of austerity, but the Immigration Department is getting ready to embark on its regular transfers, as per public service regulations. But, some immigration officers are complaining that now is not to the time to implement any kind of personnel transfers.
We understand that the public service regulations oblige the heads of government departments to transfer public servants every 2 to 3 years. This is to ensure continued growth in and to make sure that none of them become too complacent or stagnant in their professional development. A list of the immigration officers being transferred has already been compiled, and some of them have reached out to our newsroom to publicly disagree.
They say that the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 will make it especially tough to uproot their families and move to another part of the country to continue doing their jobs. This afternoon, we got a chance to discuss a few of those complaints with one of their ministerial bosses. She's Beverly Williams, the Minister of State with responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Immigration Department. She tells that there are always complaints and a fuss raised whenever the time of the year comes around for these transfers.
She spoke to us via telephone to explain that the transfers are not being done in a frivolous or arbitrary manner. She also added, that - even in austerity transfer allowances will be paid. Here are those comments:
Hon. Beverly Castillo - Minister of State/Immigration
"I'm aware that we do yearly transfers, where officers are rotated between the various immigration port of entries: the airport, the western border, the northern border, and the Punta Gorda station, even the Belize City, Corozal, and Orange Walk offices. I know that we submitted a list. I can't give you that exact number of officers. The Pubic Service Regulations do say that officers are to be transferred every 2 to 3 years. Under COVID now, with our cost-saving measures, I believe the Ministry of Public Service had indicated that due to those cost-saving measures, that we would only transfer officers who met the 3-year requirement, under the Public Service Regulations. That's what I informed by the director. So, some officers were transferred. Those that have completed 2 years, I believe some of them will stay at the station this year, for us to ensure that we pay keen attention to the cost-saving measures. That is all I'm aware of. Any officer who is transferred that has completed that 3 years will be given the appropriate transfer grants."
"I am surmising that people may not like the station to which they were sent, and always every year in July and August, it's a problem. I don't want to go to Punta Gorda. I don't want to go to Corozal. I want to be near where my mom is in Cayo. We cannot accommodate all officers. We do give officers an opportunity to tell us, prior to being transferred, if they have any problems with being transferred and why, before we prepare. It's difficult for us to ensure that everybody is satisfied with where they want to go. And from a management perspective, you don't do that. You don't leave an officer in one position for 10 years. Everybody becomes comfortable in a position. Isn't that the reason that management would want to have an officer rotated so that they become a well-rounded officer?"
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