Public service reform

While there is undoubted merit in the argument of the IDB Operations Specialist in Trinidad and Tobago that Government should not impose an imported blueprint for public sector reform on the country, nonetheless rather than seeking to “reinvent the wheel” it should examine closely recent public sector reforms in the Commonwealth and seek to adapt them to our special needs. Admittedly, what may be acceptable in the more developed nations of the Commonwealth are not necessarily applicable here, save in the long term. We do not have the human resources, for example, to effect reform as say in the United Kingdom and even there it has not been altogether plain sailing.

Meaningful Public Service Reform, or for that matter the broader Public Sector Reform, although it is a desirable goal, is faced with three problems when it comes to implementation, the relative strength of the Public Services Association; the cost of not simply introducing the forever changing needed technology but that of training personnel, and the lack of specialist manpower. Trinidad and Tobago’s Public Service, not unlike what obtains in other Member States of the Caribbean Community of Nations [CARICOM] has almost slavishly followed the pattern, save in exceptional cases or where University qualifications are dem-anded for certain positions, of promoting largely on the basis of seniority. In this way incompetence is all too often rewarded.

But the converse is equally true, as in the Public Service there are scores of persons, who failed to gain scholarships at the secondary school level, and they have been allowed, literally, to vegetate. Should they be awarded scholarships while in the Service not only will they be in a position to access jobs reserved for persons with University degrees, but perform far better than many persons fresh out of University, who came in at senior management level. Meanwhile, there has to be a reassessment of the need for certain posts in the Public Service and for them to be abolished once they are deemed unnecessary.

The holders of these posts should be given the opportunity of being transferred to newly created [not dissimilar] jobs in other Departments and/or Ministries, providing of course that they are performers. In the context of preparing Trinidad and Tobago for 2020 increasingly new entrants to junior management positions in the Public Service should be required to have either a University degree or tertiary qualification. At the same time they should be provided with the opportunity later to specialise. In turn, in the age of globalisation Trinidad and Tobago’s public sector, no less than its private sector, will need to place growing emphasis on acquiring trained personnel, particularly specialists, if the country is to be competitive.