–to advise on award of fellowships, scholarships

GOVERNMENT would do well to utilise whatever resources it already has to help whip the Public Service into shape.

That, in a nutshell, is the latest word from the three-member commission charged with assessing the state of readiness of the country’s Public Service.

“In our view, it would be prudent that collaborative arrangements be put in place to ensure that institutions are not operating at cross purposes,” the Commission, led by former University of Guyana (UG) Vice-Chancellor Professor Harold Lutchman, stated.
The APNU+AFC administration has, since taking office, committed to establishment of a college for the training of public servants. President David Granger, upon assuming office last year, made it clear that the future of Guyana depends on an efficient, reliable and dependable Public Service.

The college is expected to have four faculties, namely: International Relations (Foreign Service), Defence, Public Administration, and Information Technology.

Despite its inability to conclusively advise or comment on the initiative, the Commission, in its report, provides a number of principles of training that could be helpful in the development of a staff college.
It also acknowledges the need for staff development, stating that training is an essential requirement in public management and administration.

Such a move, the Commission further explained, would produce a competent cadre of public servants who will deliver timely, quality, efficient, and professional service to the public.

While many ministries execute their own training programmes, the Commission strongly believes that such programmes should be successfully planned and executed, and that the identification of training needs in public administration ought to be the prime responsibility of the Heads of Departments and Ministries.

As such, it has advised that a committee of permanent secretaries be established to identify candidates to be awarded fellowships and scholarships.

It has also been recommended that an audit of the training and development functions of the Public Service be conducted every five years.

“It would be important that monitoring be used for feedback on performance achieved,” the Commission said in its report. “Regular comparison has to be made between expected and actual achievements of plans, objectives and targets. It would require preparing work programmes; setting performance targets; deciding what and how to measure; setting acceptable level for target variation; measuring performance and comparing target; and taking corrective actions for improvement,” it added.

The report on the state of the Public Service was last Wednesday handed over to House Speaker Dr Barton Scotland, one day after it was laid before the Cabinet, which is now in the process of considering the recommendations contained therein.