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Tommy Turnquest: Review of ZNS' staffing level required By KEVA LIGHTBOURNE ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ kdl@nasguard.com: A move by the government to transform ZNS into a public service broadcaster will lead to a restructuring and reorganization of the corporation which will require a critical review of its current staff levels. Broadcasting Minister Tommy Turnquest made the disclosure in the House of Assembly yesterday as debate continued on the Communications Bill, which seeks to liberalize the country's communications sector. As it now stands, ZNS has 253 employees, 80 of whom are in management positions. The remaining 173 are line staff workers, he said. "The upshot of the current staffing tables of managers and 173 line staff at ZNS is that the average ratio of staff to one manager is less than 3 to 1. You have one manager managing, on average, less than three persons. In some cases, some management staff have no one to manage. This is a situation that developed as a result of promotions over the years, which were intended to give employees improved wages but which did not take sufficiently into account the job that actually needed to be done," Turnquest told MPs. "For example, a cameraman is promoted to the position of supervisor, or a reporter promoted to the position of editor. These officers now no longer go out on assignments. The management pool expands, increasing costs, and the line staff pool contracts, leaving less expertise in the field. You have some of your better journalists who are not going out doing the interviews, doing the coverage because they are elevated to management and you lose out in the field that much-needed expertise." The minister stressed that no organization could remain financially viable and effective in circumstances such as these. "In the case of the ZNS, it may now be time to flatten the organization in terms of its job titles," he said, "to just have a wider pool within those job titles." Of the total number of employees at the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas, 205 are in Nassau and 48 are in Freeport. Turnquest disclosed that a decision would also have to be made regarding the number of stations operated by ZNS. Currently, the BCB operates a national radio service (ZNS-1) on both the AM and FM bands. "It will have to determine whether to retain or divest its other two branded stations, Power 104.5 FM and the Inspiration Station, which is on 1240 AM/107.9 FM," Turnquest said. "When you look at the cost structure, when you look at the amount of funding we provide, it really is not something that we want to make a profit on selling. We just need to divest ourselves of it, find our core area in terms of radio and television, which is TV 13 and 1540 AM/810 AM. Go with that and then divest ourselves." Another important issue that would have to be considered in the transition of ZNS into a public service broadcaster is the funding from advertisement, he said. It would not be expected that ZNS would solicit ads. Currently, the government provides an $8 million contribution to ZNS for its operations and $3 million towards it capital improvement program. Under the new regime, a fund will be put in place to accommodate the public service broadcaster. According to Turnquest, the government will hold discussions with the two unions that represent ZNS employees as it forges ahead with the planned public service broadcasting system. The minister said that for more than 20 years, discussions on the transition to this system have been ongoing, but added that this is the first time that ZNS is truly on its path to becoming a public broadcasting service provider.