Division Of Personnel Says Large Amounts Of Job Listing Data Delays Website Update

ST. CROIX — Following an article about the over 800 jobs now available in the Virgin Islands Government, which saw massive popularity as job seekers inundated the government’s job listing website, the Division of Personnel issued a statement apologizing to interested individuals for the lack of information found on the site, and blamed the delay in making the listings available on large amounts of data that have yet to be inserted into its system as the culprit.

“Due to the large volume of new job listing and related information, the Division of Personnel is experiencing some delay in updating its website. The Division of Personnel is working to resolve technical problems, and will keep the public updated on the status of the website. The Division of Personnel appreciates the patience of the public, and regrets this unavoidable delay,” the statement said.

Alternatively, the division can be reached via phone on St. Croix at 340-718-8588, and on St. Thomas at 340-774-8588.

News of the openings was brought to the fore by Governor Kenneth Mapp, first during an exclusive interview with The Consortium preceding his second State of the Territory Address, and during his SOTA speech on Monday night.

“The Government of the Virgin Islands is now hiring teachers, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, correction officers, DPNR enforcement officers, revenue agents, school lunch workers, environmental enforcement officers, doctors, nurses, administrative personnel and recreation leaders to name a few. These 876 funded vacant positions are in addition to the 590 new employees we have hired since January 5, 2015,” the governor said at the Earl B. Ottley Legislature on Monday.

During an interview just days preceding the 2014 General Election, then-gubernatorial candidate Mapp said part of the strategy was to eliminate overtime, which would then save considerable dollars and enable the hiring of new workers. He used  the Virgin Islands Police Department as an example.

“We have police officers working two and three shifts, two three and four days each and every week without consent — meaning the employees don’t have any say; they have to do it — because we don’t have enough bodies. So we spend twelve to fourteen million dollars [a year] on overtime, but nobody is stopping to say, ‘wait a minute, we’re spending that kind of money in overtime, but we don’t have enough police officers.’”

In June of 2015, during a Committee On Finance hearing at the Frits E. Lawaetz Legislative Hall, VIPD Commissioner Delroy Richards, Sr., revealed that the force was expending $11 million annually on overtime pay, almost matching Mr. Mapp’s assessment even before he became governor.

The funding for the 876 vacancies was made available in the 2015-16 budget. But the governor also announced pay raises to a myriad of government department and agencies, the most recent being the Department of Education with its over 3,000 classified employees, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Bureau of Corrections and the Human Services. He’d previously announced pay raises for the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Division of Personnel, the Virgin Islands Police Department (to include sworn and civilian personnel), the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs, the Virgin Islands Fire Service, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Finance.

Asked by The Consortium how would the administration sustain the salary increases, the governor said there were new sources of revenue coming online, although he didn’t identify any, and added that his administration would increase the budget to some degree.

“[The pay raises] are sustainable because a number of these raises are going to be shared by federal dollars because some of these will include federal employees,” he said, adding that there was growth in the government’s  revenue stream, and monies owed were being paid. “And we believe that we can, to a certain level, allow an increase to the budget of the Virgin Islands without busting the budget,” the governor said.