Careful Pointing Fingers, PM

​At a handing over ceremony of 200 motorbikes for the Police Service, the Prime Minister, again made some very unfortunate remarks, this time disparaging “many” Public Officers who he claimed “produce absolutely nothing when the day comes” but “make the most noise when the pay is late”.
The PM has made a habit of making these kinds of scathing remarks about institutions of the country and those who operate them loosing focus of the important issues which he sometimes raises in the same speech.
Yesterday for example, the PM pointed to the benefits of these new motorbikes for improved response time and effectiveness of the Police Service and the need for their proper maintenance and management.
However, he went off into his ‘attack’ mode and lost the plot.
What is the Public Service
The PM referred again yesterday to ‘gazetted’ public officers as he was when he joined the Civil Service many years ago. He has recently referred to his Government not having retrenched a ‘single gazetted officer’.
The gazetted officers he refers to are the Public Officers appointed to Public Office by a Service Commission.
The Public Service is the several services – Police, Fire, Prisons, Civil, Teaching which are established under our Constitution to provide operational support to the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of our nation’s State.
Many people still refer to the Civil Service with which most members of the public interact on a daily basis for a range of services as the Public Service. It is just one of the services.
In response to the PM’s unfortunate charge of ‘lazy public officers’ most of the citizens’ responses have, as expected, focused on the Civil Service.
Public Officers vs Contract Employees
However, what people encounter in most Ministries and Departments in 2019 are not ‘gazetted’ public officers, but contract employees hired by the Ministries and not appointed by the Public Service Commission.
As many as 75% or more of the employees in Ministries are contract employees and not Public Officers. There is a vast difference.
So, while the PM boasts that not a single ‘gazetted’ civil servant has been retrenched, hundreds if not thousands of contract employees have been terminated from the Civil Service
Since the 1980’s, successive governments have drastically and systematically reduced the size of the Constitutional Public Service and increased the number of politically appointed contract employees as politicians have demanded their perceived “right” to hire and fire and undermine the role of the Service Commissions.
Contract employment was initially only to be used in cases of skills not available in the Service or for specific projects or short periods. But, politicians have expanded contract employment all over the civil service.
When I went to work as Advisor to a Minister in 2010, I met telephone operators and drivers who were employed on contract for many years.
In 2006, the vast majority of the Police Service was removed by amendments of the Constitution and the Police Service Act unanimously passed, from under the purview of the Police Service Commission and placed under the direct management of the Commissioner of Police. Only the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners are appointed by the Commission, and only after approval by the politicians in Parliament.
Management is the Problem
While in his remarks, the PM did point to the need for improvements in management and accountability in the Public Service broadly speaking, he misdirected himself by his misguided attack on the officers who are to be managed.
What he did not point to is that despite the appointment of several Ministers of Public Administration since the 1980’s, the management function in the Public Service has deteriorated badly providing neither guidance and training nor performance management to those who are to be managed.
What he did not discuss is that after four years of his administration, he has not provided a single bit of accounting for the role of his recently dismissed Public Administration Minister in terms of the improvement of the efficiency and service quality of the Public Service.
In fact, is we are to be honest, the quality of service rendered to the public has deteriorated under this administration’s watch. The continued inability to improve the ease of doing business is one bit of evidence of this failure.
A prevalent complaint raised by members of the public is the closing of several government services at lunch time when most employed persons can conveniently access public services.
This problem should have been eliminated since the issuing of a Circular requiring all Revenue-collecting offices to remain open which was issued in the 1990’s by another PNM Public Administration Minister, Draper, with the concurrence of the PSA.
It seems that organisational managerial memory has lost sight of this requirement, as perhaps many others.
The Prime Minister would be well advised to pay more attention to improving the management systems and cutting back the insecure contract employment and restore the quality of the gazetted and Constitutionally- legitimate Public Service employment.
The Constitution at section 85 says that Ministers are responsible for the general direction of their Ministries and sadly Permanent Secretaries are described responsible for “supervision”, rather than management.
Politicians need to  worry less about controlling and hiring and firing employees and more about providing important policy direction and allow Public Officers to play their role of advising on Government Policy and implementing decided policy.
The Prime Minister must be careful about pointing fingers in the wrong direction and focus on the real issues plaguing us.
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen who advocates for an
Efficient, Effective and Independent
Public Service.
22 August 2019