Enill: Hard to staff Public Service

MINISTER in the Ministry of Finance, Conrad Enill, blamed many governmental shortcomings for problems in staffing the Public Service as he wound-up the Budget debate in the Senate on Tuesday night. People are hard to recruit and retain, he said. “Within our systems we are doing the best anybody can do.” He challenged a parliamentary Joint Select Committee (JSC) to ask the Public Service Commission how long it takes to fill a given vacancy in a particular ministry. He offered his own answer: “Four to six years.” His ministry, he said, was having problems recruiting some 400 persons needed to staff its Customs and Excise Division. Enill also asked: “Why can’t the Ministry of National Security get 150 prison officers?” Saying that the “system” was holding the Government to ransom, he said, “We are not in charge of the laws that are in place to fill those vacancies.”

He hoped the system could be fixed. Enill also noted the problem caused by the retirement of public servants. “People enter the Public Service in ‘batches’ but now the ‘batches’ are retiring.” He recalled his own experience of briefing several officers about his plans, only to soon find these people gone, remarking, “One month later I’m looking at a bunch of strangers.” When he had once asked his officers when they were due to retire they had each named an upcoming month, with one man even saying, “Boss, I’m only acting; tomorrow I’m not here.” Enill noted that the Ministry of Community Development had a few officers who stretched themselves to get the job done. He urged that the Public Service show accountability to get rid of people who were not working and to reward good workers. Enill also hit the private sector for poaching public servants.