Allow professional and technical persons to function without political interference

Nov 04, 2015 News

– Former Private Sector Director

Former Director of the Private Sector Commission, (PSC) and Management Consultant, Roubinder Rambarran has called for the involvement of more professional and technical persons in the process of improving the Public Service.

Former Director of PSC, Roubinder Rambarran

Rambarran testified on Monday before the Commission of Inquiry established to inquire into the affairs of the Public Service, on Monday. In his submission, the Consultant stressed that the main problem within the government system is not finances, but management.
According to him, the government often has some highly qualified and technical persons but problem management tends to frustrate technical personnel and lead to them seeking work elsewhere.
During his submission, the witness held that political interference in professional and technical areas is the main de motivational factor that causes highly qualified and technical personnel to take a lethargic stance on the job.
He underscored that “politicians think they can solve the world’s problems, but they can never. The professionals and technical people have to do it.”
Rambarran, who has experience working in managerial positions in both the private and public sector, made several recommendations for the improvement of the human resources management policies and procedures.
He noted in doing so, that an employee handbook is needed.
“Each Employee should be provided with one and regular review sessions should be held at the Departments Level and agency level.”
Rambarran also called for a more transparency in the recruitment process of the Public Sector. This, the witness said will assist with acquiring the right person for the job.
He said that everyone should get a chance and jobs must be advertised.
According to the consultant it must be determined which level should be advertise to the general public and which should be advertised internally.
To this end a human resources development plan is extremely pertinent to improving the sector.
In terms of the retirement age and plan, he held that the age should remain at 55 since “we have lot of Graduates who need jobs.”
He emphasized that improving service delivery/customer service is also essential to boosting the current system.
Rambarran believes that time should be allocated for various services and procedures in the Public Service – creating realistic benchmarks to avoid corruption and extortions.
“Stop the come back next week, next month stuff!” the witness exclaimed.
He noted too the need for vibrant public relations on services provided, and the establishment of compensation mechanism when organizations failed to deliver to customer on time.
The former PSC Director advocated for the establishment of more public/ private partnership/ semi-autonomous agencies. He explained that many functions within many ministries can be either privatized into public /private partnerships given to semi-autonomous agencies. He listed departments of various government agencies which can benefit from the partnership.