Commonwealth offers to help improve public service

Aug 25, 2016 News

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon (sixth from right – back row) with participants at the conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

– 55 indentified for first batch in Staff College

Guyana has received several offers of assistance to improve the country’s public service.
The disclosures were made yesterday by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who said that the offers came during his recent participation at public administration and public service conferences in Putrajaya, Malaysia, last week.
According to the Ministry of the Presidency, the engagement was essentially three separate forums rolled into one – the International Conference on the Blue Ocean Strategy, the Biennial Conference of the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration Management and the Meeting of Ministers of the Public Service in the Commonwealth.
Harmon explained that Guyana was offered assistance by the Commonwealth to re-train existing public servants on current methodologies. Assistance was also offered for the preparation of the curriculum for the Public Service Staff College.
Additionally, Guyana was given the option by the Commonwealth Secretariat to host the 2018 edition of the conference, but Minister Harmon explained that a formal offer has to be made to the Government, which will then have to be deliberated on by the Cabinet before a final decision is made.
“This is a huge step, there is great potential. These conferences allow you access to the persons who will give access to the resources to develop what you have,” the Minister said.
Giving an update on the Public Service Staff College, Minister Harmon explained that the introduction of this institution will see a significant change in the culture of the public service. Already, 55 young individuals have been identified to be trained in the first batch.
The college was announced last year by the new administration and tapped as a major forum to improve the public service.
Harmon explained that the Government is looking at three tiers of training for public servants. The first is the entry level, where people are trained for a period of eight months at the end of which they will receive an equivalent qualification to that of a university diploma. The second tier targets existing public servants and keeps them abreast with relevant skills and systems.
The third tier is designed for senior public servants, including permanent secretaries and other upper-level public officers.
The Minister also spoke about how Malaysia used its National Blue Ocean Strategy to provide more efficient public services to its people by bringing together all public offices in central hubs that operate seven days per week, 24 hours per day. He said that this is what the Government of Guyana is looking at, and noted that the ministerial outreaches, while only a temporary arrangement, would be a step in the right direction so as to make public service more accessible to ordinary Guyanese.
The Minister was accompanied by Head of the Scholarships Division in the Department of Public Service, Soyinka Grogan.

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