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A COMMISSION OF INQUIRY IS UNSUITED FOR THIS TASK

Sep 29, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) is right when it comes to the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the salaries, benefits and working conditions of Public Servants. He has said that instead of the COI, what is needed is for a consultant to study the issues that constitute the Terms of Reference of the present COI.
There is no need for a Commission of Inquiry. A COI is intended as a fact finding mission. It is intended to look into issues and determine facts. It is hard to imagine that a case needs to be made out for improved benefits, salaries and working conditions of the Public Servants.
The coalition is well aware of the plight of Public Servants. The coalition had promised a substantial increase in salaries to Public Servants within its first one hundred days. The fact that this has not materialized should not lead to the conclusion that APNU/AFC is unaware of the poor and uncompetitive levels of remuneration within the public service. They are and therefore it is strange that they should not be engaged in an exercise aimed at determining facts that they ought to have been fully aware of.
What are those facts? The first is that salaries, especially for policemen, teachers and nurses are poor. The second fact is that employment benefits are poor. The whole pension system needs to be reformed so that when Public Servants retire they can have a decent pension. Other benefits need to be chopped instead of increased. Under the PPP, a whole range of benefits were provided which amounted to a burden on the treasury. We know of the dental care benefits which went beyond the pale. We learnt about persons having to pay back sums for medical care; just what that is, nobody is sure.
These, of course, are not benefits enjoyed by ordinary workers. Ironically, the ordinary workers are far more abusive of their benefits. Take for example travel allowances. This allowance is one that is known to be abused with many workers racking up miles more than some frequent flyers. The government should abolish travel allowances. They should have a pool of vehicles to transport workers around. In this way, they do not have to pay travel allowances and therefore can better manage the travel duties of their staff.
The next benefit to be abolished should be overtime. It is known that some workers proceed on go-slow during formal working hours and then relax during overtime work. This is a problem with supervision but for certain categories of workers, they should work forty hours and if there is additional work to be done, then another shift should be put in. This proposal has the additional benefit of creating part time jobs for people who will work after hours. In many areas government needs to be working twenty four hours a day. Departments relating to public services such as the issuance of passports, vehicle registrations should be working around the clock. Having part-time work will ensure that daytime workers are more productive, and will not delay their work in order to cash in on overtime.
The other benefit that is abused is meal allowances. This should be abolished totally. If you want to eat bring your own food. It will save the treasury a lot of money if this benefit is removed completely.
You do not need a Commission of Inquiry to unearth these facts. In fact, it is hardly likely that anyone is going to go forward and provide evidence of abuse of these benefits.
This is why instead of a COI, what was needed was a consultant to probe these issues and make recommendations on what can be paid and what should be chopped.

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