By Sue-Ann Wayow
DIRECTOR of Legal Department, Director of International Affairs, Manager of the National Drug Council are just some of the contracted positions that will be up for grabs in 2022 under the Ministry of National Security.
At the Standing Finance Committee meeting in Parliament on Wednesday, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said 53 positions would become available also including a CCTV manager, IT system manager, procurement specialist an senior IT infrastructure specialist.
He said that for 2021, there were 596 contracted positions with 267 filled, 15 recruited in 2021, 59 contracts renewed and one was not renewed as he explained an increased allocation of $8.4 million for contract employment for the fiscal year 2022.
Hinds said, “Those are some of the positions we intend to treat with in the pursuit of optimum efficiency in 2022.”
The minister also gave figures as to how many posts there were vacant and filled in the various sections.
Under Fire Service, the minister said there were 2,723 posts, 2,415 filled and 308 vacant posts, 232 vacant with bodies (persons acting in those positions) and 76 without bodies adding that no new persons were hired during the pandemic.
Hinds said, “We are aiming to ramp up our recruitment across the Ministry of National Security’s platform in the immediate or foreseeable future.”
He added, “Discussions for advancements of all aspects of national security are always ongoing.”
For auxiliary posts for fire service, there were 828, 586 filled and vacant, 242.
In the Prisons Service, there were 4,219 officers altogether, 3,661 posts filled, vacant posts, 558, the number of post with bodies- 86, without bodies- 472.
With the Covid-19 quarantining of several officers at the prisons, Hinds acknowledged that there will be a shortage of officers who will be paid if they worked overtime.
For the regiment, Hinds said the number of posts filled was 107, vacant positions -90 with eight commissioned officers being recruited in 2021.
Referring to other ranks he said there were 3,621 positions, 3,237 filled, vacant, 434, 396 recruited in 2021 and 200 expected to be recruited for 2022.
For public servants of the Coast Guard, there were eight posts, three filled and five were vacant, 182 officer posts, 116 filled, vacant posts-66. There were six new recruits for 2021 with none projected for 2022, the minister said.
For other ranks, there was 1,749 positions, 1,437 filled, 23 vacant posts, 85 new persons were taken on in 2021 and there will be no recruitment for 2022.
When asked about manpower shortage to properly utilise assets to the Coast Guard, Hinds responded, “There are vacant positions, in so far as that being directly related to being unable to utilize assets and resources of the Coast Guard, I am not aware that that is an issue.”
He said there six public posts for lifeguards which were all filled, there were 126 posts under the establishment with 101 filled, 15 vacant posts, 15 with bodies and 10 without bodies.
The number of regular workers were 19 and casual workers, eight.
