Public Servants must take leave due to them – Cabinet orders

Sep 27, 2015 News

---

• Senior officials have leave to take them into retirement but still on the job  

 

Public Servants will no longer be allowed to accumulate leave and negotiate for payment in lieu. This is as a result of a decision taken by Cabinet that Public Servants who do not take their annual vacation leave for an extended period will forfeit it.

The move will mostly affect senior Public Servants, including the Chancellor, Chief Justice, other High Court Judges and Permanent Secretaries.

It could also affect the Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, the Commissioner of Police, Director of Prisons and the Chief Fire Officer, as well as other Heads of Government agencies.

Of course, while in some instances the accumulated leave could be justified, the move is aimed at discouraging the deliberate deferral of leave, as well as to allowing for proper succession planning within Public Service entities.

A source in the Cabinet, who declined to be named, explained, “Leave is for persons to rejuvenate. That is the basis of annual leave. If you don’t want it, you lose it.”

This newspaper was reliably informed that one very senior Judge has accumulated leave that would take him into retirement more than a year before he is due to come off.

“Some who are nearing retirement should not expect to benefit from payment for the leave they have allowed to build up over the years. They won’t be allowed to collect money and work up to their retirement age; they will have to proceed on their leave,” the source stated.

The same scenario obtains in the case of one Permanent Secretary, who has accumulated leave totaling over 500 days.

A Finance Ministry official explained that should the government offer to pay the Permanent Secretary for the leave, it will amount to close to $10M.

The source also disclosed that in the case of a high ranking Police Officer, who has over 100 days leave due to him, the State will have to pay him almost $2 million.

“This situation cannot be allowed to continue. Once they are eligible for their leave, they will have to take it because it’s a whole lot of money the government will have to pay.”

“Why would someone not want to go on their leave? I can only think of two things; that they have to cover their tracks or, they do not want to let go of the perks that come with the office they hold,” said the source.

The current scenario is being blamed on the previous People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration, which according to one top coalition executive, officially sanctioned the deferral of annual leave.

It was former Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, who had ordered police officers to defer their annual leave as far back as 2011.

The then Minister had ordered that police officers will only be able to proceed on half their 42 days annual leave.

But while the decision did not go down well with the officers, some of them began to abuse it and set themselves up to draw down on payment in lieu of leave.

“What Rohee was doing was wrong. The police could have sued him for their (leave) entitlement but of course some of them saw the personal benefit and decided to abuse the situation,” the source stated.

Since its accession to office, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change Government has been sending off a number of senior public servants who had accumulated leave.

In many cases the agencies to which these officials were attached have been subjected to forensic audits, and some of them have not returned to work.

It has been argued that in some public sector institutions, senior functionaries seek permission to defer their vacation leave, or request payment in lieu of said leave, bringing into question the issue of succession planning.

According to the writer of a recent letter that was published in this newspaper, “One of the highest priorities for any Chief Executive should be to develop his or her staff and to have a succession plan in place for at least his successor. During a leadership change, a succession plan maintains the continuity of the organisation’s mission and reduces uncertainty and resistance to change.

“Succession planning – as a process, facilitates a review for leadership talent while identifying possible successors, and then providing those individuals with the training, mentoring, and support they need to prepare themselves for critical roles within the organisation when vacancies occur.”

“In Police Forces, although succession planning – when it takes place, is often associated primarily with the Chief Executive’s (or Commissioner’s) position, it is also essential to identifying and preparing leadership at all levels of the organisation.

“Having a succession plan at every leadership level ensures that no matter what the change, there will be experienced and trained personnel to step into leadership positions. In other words, nepotism would have no place to secure a foothold in any sort of law enforcement agency, regardless of size.

“It is for this very reason that leadership development for staff is critical particularly in an organisation moving towards modernization,” the letter writer wrote.

This position was echoed by a senior government functionary who told this newspaper that the issue of persons staying on and not proceeding on leave, “creates a whole bunch of repercussions for others down the line.”

 

---

---