Klao Bell, Staff Reporter
MORE than two dozen staffers in Jamaica's missions abroad will be returning to the island in June, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade makes their positions redundant.
The Ministry, which is on a cost-cutting exercise, is expected to save $100 million from this and other measures, among them, charging for certain services.
"Approximately 30 home-based staff from various occupational groups will be returning," said Marcia Gilbert-Roberts, under-secretary for Foreign Service Operations in the Ministry. "Some from records office, accountants, secretaries, and 12 from the foreign service."
She explained that the returning workers would be assigned other duties here, as well as providing support to overseas staff.
"When necessary," she added, "staff will be sent overseas to assist with projects."
Of the approximately 400 persons working in overseas missions, 270 are Jamaicans.
There are nearly 145 local staff members (nationals and residents of foreign countries who work in Jamaican overseas missions) in the more than 60 countries where Jamaica is represented. Some of them are hired as chauffeurs or for their bilingual skills.
Mrs. Gilbert-Roberts admitted that some of these workers will lose their jobs.
"We will be cutting back on some local staff. We cannot say how many at this time because the final decision has not yet been made. But in most missions there are two persons performing one function for example, chauffeuring, now they will use one person," she said.
A source in the New York consulate told The Sunday Gleaner that five local staff members from the accounting and passport departments will lose their jobs. Four of these staff members are Jamaican "green card" holders, while three home-based officers are to return to Jamaica.
"The workload left on the rest of us will be enormous," the source added.
Another source affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jamaica, said reassigning people to Jamaica will be futile without the Ministry's internal communication and technology systems in place.
"Right now there is limited Internet access and not enough terminals," the source said. That needs to be in place if we are going to be able to offer any real support to the overseas offices."
Both sources did not want their names published because, they said, they were not authorised to speak to the press.
The Ministry has designed a computer network that will link all the offices locally and internationally but "does not yet have the $8 million it is projected to cost," Mrs. Gilbert-Roberts said.
Alison Anderson, lecturer in Inter-national Relations in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies (UWI) said the staff cuts could be detrimental to Jamaica's reputation overseas.
"The cutbacks are going to increase the strain on the already overworked staff," Ms. Anderson said. "And there is quite a lot to do. The responsibilities that the New York mission alone has to handle are mind-boggling."
She also explained that the New York mission has made massive preparations, before the United Nations Special Session of the General Assembly on Children, in September, which will be chaired by Ambassador Patricia Durrant, Jamaica's permanent representative to the U.N.
