The Government defeated a Private Member’s Motion in the Legislative Assembly Monday proposing civil servants like chief officers or permanent secretaries be prevented from running in a general election for at least one year after leaving the service.
While debating the motion, which was brought by Leader of the Opposition McKeeva Bush, Cabinet Minister Arden McLean remarked that it seemed aimed at one person in particular.
‘It sounds very much like the Anti-Clifford Resolve,’ he said.
Mr. McLean was referring to the fact that Cabinet Minister Charles Clifford had served as Mr. Bush’s permanent secretary when the latter was a Cabinet minister. Mr. Clifford resigned his post on 31 July 2004 and less than a month later announced his candidacy in the general elections scheduled for November of that year.
Mr. Bush subsequently accused Mr. Clifford of taking files from the ministry office and using them against him in the election campaign.
Because civil servants like chief officers work so closely with incumbent ministers, Mr. Bush argued that could easily use confidential information to damage the reputation of the ministers in an election campaign.
‘And some of them are evil enough to take information and change it up when they know the difference,’ he said.
In debating the motion, Mr. McLean said Mr. Bush had benefited from the resignation of another high-level civil servant, Thomas Jefferson, who resigned as Financial Secretary to run successfully for office in 1992.
He also pointed out that another Financial Secretary, Sir Vassel Johnson, also resigned from civil service and then ran successfully for office.
‘He made significant contributions to the country,’ Mr. McLean said.
Mr. Johnson, however, resigned from civil service in 1982 and did not run for office until 1984, so he would not have been prevented from running under Mr. Bush’s motion.
Mr. McLean said the motion would only curtail civil servants. He also questioned the motives of the motion.
‘It’s convenient because of some dispute between the Leader of the Opposition and the current Minister of Tourism, and because of that, [Mr. Bush thinks] we should never have [senior civil servants running for election] again,’ he said.
‘I’m not going to be part and parcel of it.’
Mr. McLean said if a civil servant wants to resign and run for election, he or she should be allowed to do it.
‘It’s the people of this country who decide who it elects,’ he said. ‘It should not be decided by us in here.’
Mr. Clifford agreed with Mr. McLean during his debate on the motion.
‘Why should civil servants be curtailed if they want to leave the service and run for election?’ he asked, adding that he didn’t think they should have to wait at least one year to do so.
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