Gov’t creating platform for efficient public service – Prime Minister
GINA, Guyana, Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Government is determined to ensure that Guyana’s public service is efficient and effective in the execution of its mandate and in this regard is working with international development partners.
The Prime Minister told this to a gathering of officials and participants at a reception hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner on Monday. The Prime Minister said public servants in Guyana have been demoralised for many years.
“This new Government, almost from day one has pledged that we would open a public service training college so that public servants can then go back to the drawing board to understand serving the public diligently, consistently of a high standard, and to be dedicated to the morals of the public service, ” he said.
The Prime Minister stated that the coalition Government is working for a better public service, by offering public servants opportunities for continuous development and training.
“We want to warmly welcome you and ask that you make this endeavor important in your career and that you take away from this conference, those attributes that would help to make our public service not only here in Guyana and the Caribbean but everywhere in the Commonwealth, we believe that the public service delivery and function has to be improved and enhanced and so we want to join this new and continuing effort to build the standards of our public service,” the Prime Minister explained.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo said that public service development is important, especially as it relates to the fundamentals of good governance and public trust. Top level managers and Permanent Secretaries are being trained in leadership development.
The Canadian government is funding the implementation of the Caribbean Leadership Project. Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana Pierre Giroux expressed satisfaction with Guyana’s partnership in the project’s implementation.
“A professional and non-partisan public service in our view is central to our democracy, public servants are called to provide advice and allow for the implementation of government policies hence the need for strengthening the institution and the human resources capacity,” the High Commissioner stated.
Deputy Secretary General, CARICOM, Dr. Manorma Soeknandan said the project is critical to the development of public services across the Caribbean, and the CARICOM Secretariat fully supports its implementation.
“Given the knowledge of having the capacity and using that at the national and regional level with the assistance of our IDPs can help us to excel but it can also help to bring a change not only at the national level but also at the regional level,” the Deputy Secretary General explained.
The Caribbean Leadership Project was officially launched in Barbados in 2013. Since then, 93 senior officials across the Caribbean have been trained including four from Guyana. Currently three Guyanese are being trained. The programme will conclude on September 16, 2016.