Responding to Guyana Times…
PUBLIC Relations Officer (PRO) of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) said yesterday that the municipality finds it difficult to understand why Guyana Times believes that retrenchment is the only option available to reduce expenditure.
King was responding to an editorial in that newspaper, headlined ‘More Charade at City Hall’ last Sunday’s issue.
In a press release, he said a number of organisational studies have shown that retrenchment can increase rather than cut costs.
Even if the Council was to retrench, it would still need to, carefully, study the organisational, social and other costs associated with it, the release contended.
It said there are several very serious disadvantages involved in retrenchment, as it can result in fiscal stress and human resource shrinkage that can negatively affect the administration of the city.
The release continued: “The major problem is decrease of human resources that results from cost cutting measures. It brings loss of skills, energy, morale, and commitment, physical and mental health degradation that results from employees withdrawing physically and emotionally.”
“Decrement also causes reduced cooperative attitudes, greater fear and distrust, poor communication, lowered performance goals, restriction of production and increased turnover.
“It is very possible that costs will increase as a result of retrenchment, due to the package that must be paid out on retrenchment and catering for the needs of retraining those retained by the municipality,” the release said.
It added that:”Although layoffs are intended to reduce costs, some like the severance package, pension and administrative processing will increase. Therefore, the cost reduction as an advantage of retrenchment is not attainable in the short run.
“Retrenchment could demoralise workers, increase voluntary retrenchment and discourage the Council’s most talented and productive employees, who could very well end up leaving the municipality.
“It threatens workers’ faith in the value of their contributions to the Council and sense of control over the future.”
About the collective thinking of the Council, the release said the focus has always been on improving its efficiency to deliver quality services to citizens rather than on retrenchment.
“The thing is we do not need staff to provide service. Rather we provide service that is why we need staff. Therefore, to just retrench staff would be to undermine our ability to provide the services to citizens,” the release said.
It continued that, as of now, the Council is short of staff in almost all of its departments, because it has not been filling vacancies created by people who have retired or resigned and, in some cases, it is difficult to recruit people with certain aptitudes and skills to work in critical areas due to a lack of money.
The Council, however welcomes, constructive criticism which can improve its efficiency, the release ended.