PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM

The launching on Wednesday of the Public Sector Reform Initiation Programme by Prime Minister Patrick Manning may bring discomfort to the few who are unable to keep pace with the demand for skills in the market place. Unfortunately, the country has not been provided with a clear picture as to the objectives of the programme nor the steps to be taken to achieve the objectives which, hopefully, the framers of the programme have in mind. The use of the term “Initiation,” however, is somewhat confusing particularly as there have been attempts at public sector reform in the past, including the establishment of an Organisation and Methods Department in the 1950s.

Is it the intention, for example, that the aim of the programme is to have a lean, trim and highly motivated public sector geared to the private sector approach to the discharge of their functions and in day to day dealings with the public? Will a reformed public sector be able to get rid of inefficient personnel, who prove resistant to training and/or retraining, including those who owe their being there to political patronage? In turn, will the reform of the public sector mean the end of political patronage appointments to jobs in the sector? In addition, will the Public Sector Reform Initiation Programme establish clear guidelines for the needed separating of the policy making process from that of the execution of policy. Admittedly, Permanent Secretaries, Chief Executive Officers and other top ranking management personnel are required to guide Ministers on the formulation of policy. Ministers, however, should abstain from interfering in the day to day execution of these policy decisions, a problem which has bedevilled the public sector since Ministerial Government was introduced in Trinidad and Tobago in 1950.

Meanwhile, public sector reform will be nothing more than a sham if some Ministers, as was common practice in the comparatively recent past, violate the principle of lines of communication, bypass Permanent Secretaries and deal directly with other management personnel, some of them relatively junior. This, even to the extent of giving instructions. For any reform of the Public Sector to be meaningful there should be the development of programmes both for skills training for lower and middle rank personnel and for dealing with members of the public they may be called upon to interact with in their day to day duties. There is a need as well to develop their self confidence. In turn effective mechanisms should be put in place for the improvement of management skills, whose lack can lead not only to loss of productivity in the work place but discourtesy and inconvenience to the general public.

In addition, the reform should embrace a job evaluation programme, whose findings should be implemented even if this means that acquired technology would make some jobs redundant. Every effort should be made, though, at seeking to retrain workers to fit into other jobs, whose posts had been made redundant. Meanwhile, there should be a continuous review of the public sector as had been the declared aim at the creation of the Organisation and Methods Department.