The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

STATE Public Service Minister Pia Glover-Rolle revealed on Friday her ministry will be conducting a human resources audit across the public service sector starting next month.

Mrs Glover-Rolle made the announcement after unveiling her ministry’s ten-point plan for reforming the public sector at a meeting held with stakeholders.

The audit, which is a part of the ministry’s reform initiative, will address skill gaps, productivity in the workplace, among other things, to ensure proper staff placement, according to Mrs Glover-Rolle.

She also noted special units should be in place by the first of February to assist with completing the audit.

“So, we have talked about building capacity, about people wanting government jobs. but we have to make sure that from a proper human resource perspective that we’re not just hiring people haphazardly and that we’re looking to see where those persons fit when we build capacity,” she said.

“So that will include us having to look at the productivity in the workplace and having to actually figure out where there are gaps and where there are places in the public service where we need to build capacity and understanding the personnel that we have now, their skillset.

“We have persons throughout the service who are skilled in one area, but working in another. Once we fix that organisational structure in the public service then we know who to identify and who to attract so that we could build the proper capacity.”

The minister said while there are no plans to reduce staff following the audit’s completion, civil service workers must not come to the false conclusion that they cannot be fired.

“As I addressed in our summit, there’s a concept that you can’t be terminated from the public service,” she said. “The Employment Act speaks to progressive discipline…but we have to ensure that the law is in place in terms of having our human resources unit and ensuring that they’re facilitating what the act says.

“The concept that people think that they can’t be disengaged from the public service is actually erroneous. The Employment Act speaks to how people are disengaged, but if we aren’t ensuring that those mechanisms or those pathways are in place where people would be disengaged — so I won’t say they will be disengaged because of the audit, but if you’re not performing on any job even in the public service, there’s a pathway by which you can be disengaged.”

News of the audit comes amid a hiring freeze in the public service.

However, the state minister said it is her hope the government will hire new people through its 52-week employment programme by summer.

She said: “The main pathway for entrance to the public service has been the 52-week programme which we are remodelling, redeveloping that programme and using that in collaboration with external programmes like University of The Bahamas and like BTVI to engage workers into the service. That programme, if approved by Cabinet, is set to be re-introduced as usual in the summer of this year.”

As for leases on government buildings, Mrs Glover-Rolle said some nine to 12 million dollars in rental fees were being wasted by the former administration on buildings that were not being occupied.

However, she said the Davis administration was planning to address this by cancelling those leases.

“In the last few years, three to four years, we have engagement of leases that are being paid to landlords and they’re receiving payment for these leases and the buildings are empty,” she said.

“We have had the opportunity to begin the audit of our accommodations and we are well on the way of disengaging millions of dollars in leases that would’ve been engaged and the buildings are unoccupied. The matters are before the AG now for review and determination.”

Other initiatives that are part of the government’s plan include complete digitisation of ministry operations, the launch of the public service virtual call centre and infrastructure expansion.

“Cries for reform in the public service are becoming deafening from both our internal and external stakeholders,” Mrs Glover-Rolle said.

“We are at a critical point, with the future of the service hanging in the balance, and there’s no more time for talk. Focused, deliberate, aggressive action is the only solution. But that action will take lots of work, lots of strategising and lots of change management.

“So, the Ministry of Public Service, under this ‘New Day’ administration, as noted in our Blueprint for Change and expanded in the new day agenda for the public service, speaks to a reimagining of how we run the public service in every aspect and function, bringing us into a 21st Century model for efficiency and productivity.”