Staffing challenges have impeded service delivery at the Department of Planning, the Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation said yesterday.

Diallo Rabain told the House of Assembly that retirements and vacancies, including in the enforcement and inspections units of the department, “left several units under-resourced”.

However, he told MPs that the department “responded decisively” to counter the issue.

It recruited key personnel including an administrative officer, a management accountant, an electrical inspector and a manager of administration.

He said there were also internal promotions to fill senior roles, and that a Bermudian student was being trained to fill the role of assistant planner.

The department also gets manpower through the Department of Workforce Development’s apprenticeship programme, with three young Bermudians to gain work experience over the summer.

Four work-permit holders are employed at the department, and to boost its staff, Mr Rabain said, it took part in numerous career day events at schools across the island to promote planning as a profession for students.

He said: “The Department of Planning is taking action; we are recruiting, reforming, digitising and collaborating.

“This year’s Budget supports that work and it supports our broader goal — a planning system that is efficient, effective and responsive to both the needs of the developer and the rights of our residents.”

For the 2025-26 fiscal year, the department was allocated $4.04m, an increase of $211,000, driven mainly by a government-wide salary increase.

On its revenue outlook, Mr Rabain said the department plans to generate $1.93m in the fiscal year ahead, an increase of 14 per cent over last year’s forecast.

He said: “This growth is driven by robust development activity across the residential, tourism and commercial sectors.”

Mr Rabain acknowledged that the department had faced “public frustration”, particularly around building permits and the processing of applications.

“These concerns are real and are not being ignored,” he said.

Mr Rabain told MPs he would announce initiatives to address the problems in the coming weeks.

He said in the last fiscal year, the department issued 11 civil penalties, totalling $275,000, while 80 per cent of enforcement complaints were responded to within two weeks.

He said 29 enforcement cases were opened last year but performance was impacted by staffing shortages after an individual retired and temporary staff got reassigned.

However, he said: “With a new officer hired and a team fully staffed, improvement is expected in 2025-26.”

Last year, he said, the department processed 362 planning applications, 61 per cent of which were completed within 12 weeks, below the 80 per cent target.

He said: “Staffing shortages and increased workload contributed to this issue but targeted recruitment and reassignments are addressing the problem.”

Mr Rabain reported that most planning applications continue to be for residential development, with a noticeable trend being for additional units through internal building conversions and the installation of solar panels.

Last year, the inspections unit of the department conducted more than 6,395 inspections including 504 for elevators, 1,708 electrical inspections and 4,183 building-related checks.

The unit also conducted 664 commencement inspections, which he noted indicated “strong project starts” for applicants to start the construction process.

Mr Rabain, who is responsible for the Department of Information and Digital Technology, said it was allocated $9.21m in the Budget.

The sum includes $3.44 million for staff salaries, including that of a “critical” security analyst post that he noted reinforces the Government’s commitment to cybersecurity and digital service protection.

He said the department was manned by 50 full-time employees, but noted that there were ten vacancies “and filling them is essential”.

To this end, he said, the department was working to fill the roles, including that of a chief systems engineer, a security manager, a network engineer, four systems engineers and an operations analyst.

He said the department was addressing its recruitment challenges head-on through a new apprenticeship programme, building a pipeline of young Bermudian IT professionals.