MINISTER of the Public Service, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, announced on Thursday that all scholarships granted during her tenure as Minister of the Public Service will be made public.
The announcement was made during a press conference held at the Ministry of Public Service, which was the minister’s first press conference since being sworn into office, in May 2019, by His Excellency, President David Arthur Granger.

Halley said that the scholarships are funded by public monies and it is the right of the citizens to know who has received scholarships.

The minister stated that transparency is key for her, “and in terms of scholarships, it is public funding and there is no need to keep it a secret, and with that in terms of transparence and accountability, I have no issue with people seeing the names I would have granted scholarships to.”

According to the minister, the Cabinet has approved a request made by the Department of the Public Service for the commissioning of a National Human Resources Needs Survey.
The survey will be for the development of a national training plan by sectors “to guide public investment in human capital, regular publication of labour market information to encourage private investment, as government alone will be hard pressed to satisfy public and especially private sector needs and the design of an immigration policy to support the acquisition of skills and talents for national development.”

She highlighted that the main objective for the survey is to quantify and qualify the national skills, talent and competency needs of the economy, in order to satisfy the workforce and training needs.

“The assessment would help us to determine the public sector needs so when we are giving out scholarships, we are giving scholarships tailored to those needs and the needs of the country as a whole. So we would hopefully reduce the likelihood of somebody going on a scholarship, ready and willing to serve but are not finding jobs,” she stated.

Halley also announced that the process for application is open for a number of scholarships at the undergraduate and master degree level at the University of Guyana for the 2019/2020 academic year.

At the undergraduate level, fields that are open for application include: Accountancy (BSc.), Agriculture (BSc.), Management (BSc.), Civil Engineering (BEng.), Computer Science (BSc.), Food Science (B.A), Geography (BSc.), Information Technology (BSc.), Mechanical Engineering (BEng.), Medicine (MBBS.), Petroleum Engineering (BSc.), Public Management (BSc.), Sociology (BSc.), amongst others.

At the post graduate level, fields that are vacant for application are: Environmental Management – Specialisation in Climate Change; Disaster Management (MSc.), Environmental Management – Specialisation in Natural, Resources Management (MSc.), Petroleum Engineering (MSc.), and Master of Social Work.

Halley noted that the application process for scholarships is fair. As she explained the process, she stated that when someone applies, the application goes to the scholarship unit where it would be processed to ensure that the person would have reached the eligibility requirements. After that, “there is a panel of persons who sit, goes through the applications and there is a process where persons are interviewed and then after that, they determine who gets the scholarship or not.”

When questioned about the claims made of scholarships being granted to the children of Minister Simona Broomes, Halley stated that Broomes’ two children are a part of 73 overseas scholarship beneficiaries, and would have successfully applied and met the requirements needed to obtain the scholarships.

“They would have applied and the person in charge of that department at that time would have gone through the applications and saw it as a need for the country, that they are granted the scholarship, and within their own judgment, thought it was best for them to get the scholarships,” she said.