SENIOR Personnel Officer within the Department of Public Service Gail Williams said the re-introduction of performance appraisals will correct the existing unfair system when it comes to salaries for newly-hired experienced and qualified public servants.As it stands now, all employees who are hired, regardless of their experience and qualifications, begin at the lowest end of the salary scale on which they are placed. Williams made the suggestion on day two of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Public Service being held at the Department of the Public Service, 164 Waterloo Street, Georgetown.
Speaking about the conditions in the public service, the senior personnel officer told the commission that practically all levels of staff are placed on contracts, and these include clerks and office assistants. She said all levels of contracts, positions and salaries are evaluated by the Department of the Public Service, and pointed out that some contracts are peculiar to some State agencies.
The Public Service Department is wide, spanning all the regions. Chairman of the CoI Professor Harold Lutchman enquired if there is a communication problem with the far-flung regions in Guyana, to which Williams answered in the negative. In cases where the reach of landline is limited, cell phones are utilised as well as the use of the radio system, and the cooperation is good, she said.
The Public Service Department, Williams said has a special relationship with the Public Service Commission in the sense that there are consultations regarding job descriptions, and other procedural matters. She told the commissioners that the level of public service could be improved through training, but more than that is, getting persons to implement the skills they have acquired.
The purpose of the commission is to enquire into and make recommendations on the roles, functions, recruitment, training, remuneration, conditions of service and other matters pertaining to personnel employed in the Public Service; determine what measures should be taken to improve the efficiency of public servants in the discharge of their duties to the general public; and examine the methodology used in the classification and recruitment of public servants.
The commission is also examining the principles on which salaries and wages of public servants should be based, especially the mechanism for determination of wages and salaries, the level of consistency between the salaries and various levels of public servants, and the basis on which the levels of remuneration for the various levels of public servants is determined; and to review or examine the age of retirement of public servants and make recommendations in this regard.
Aside from Professor Lutchman who chairs the commission, the body comprises Samuel Goolsarran and Sandra Jones who are commissioners, and Geeta Chandan-Edmond, who is Secretary to the Commission.