Modernised public service essential for evolving economy – Min. Sarabo-Halley
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By Isaiah Braithwaite
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, May 23, 2019
Modernising the public service is on the front burner of the recently appointed Minister of Public Service, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley. The minister said the current way the public service operates is not suitable to Guyana’s evolving economy.
The minister made this disclosure during an exclusive interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Wednesday last.
“The organisational structure does not facilitate the new jobs that have been created, and of course, it does not cater for the jobs that are going to come with the oil and gas which is about to come on stream. So, bringing the public service to the 21st century includes reorganising the organisational structure, expanding it for the new jobs that are likely to come on board and moving it from personnel to human resource management.”
Minister Sarabo-Halley pointed out that the recommendations made in the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Public Service will guide the process. The report was completed and submitted in 2016 to President David Granger, Guyana Public Service Union, the Opposition Leader and Speaker of the National Assembly.
One of the main reasons the COI was carried out was to find measures to improve the efficiency with which public servants discharge their duties and the method of classifying public servants. Wages and salaries, wage structure for different levels of public servants and the age of retirement also formed part of the COI.
“It is not about reinventing the wheel, but it is utilising some of the recommendations that they would have made in the report and implementing those recommendations where they can be implemented and also bringing persons on board, to facilitate the implementations of those recommendations,” Minister Sarabo-Halley explained.
Since coming to office in 2015, the APNU+AFC government has committed to modernising the public service. To this end, numerous local and overseas training programmes have been embraced, and the Bertram Collins College of Public Service established.
Image: Marceano Narine.