College opens to train prospective public servants

Nov 24, 2016 News

… unprofessionalism in the Public Sector to be something of the past
The government, yesterday, ushered in a new component of the Public Services sector yesterday. This component is the President David Granger’s envisioned Public Service College.

The initial batch for the Cadet Programme at the newly launched Bertram Collins College for the Public Service. (MOTP Photo)

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who delivered the Feature Address, said that after the Coalition Party won the May 2015 General Elections, the President had raised several concerns over the state of the Public Service.
A meeting was subsequently facilitated where Permanent Secretaries attached to several ministries were summoned. During the meeting, Harmon said, the President outlined his plan to have a college set up to craft recruits interested in getting into the Public Service.
The Bertram Collins College of the Public Service – which was officially opened yesterday – was birthed and mandated with this responsibility.
Harmon said that this was a testimony to the President’s passion to enhance the Public Sector.
Harmon charged the recruits to be the ones that will make a difference in Guyana; those that will “change the face of the Public Service”.
More than 60 young people aged between 17 and 20 years, are slated to benefit from training annually.The College will not only provide services to persons desirous of entering the Public Service but will also offer services for those already in the system.
“We are depending on you. The entire vista of public service training is available to you,” Harmon told the new recruits.
The Minister also made reference to the recently concluded Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Public Service. He said that the CoI report consists of 89 recommendations which will be implemented in three phases: short term; medium term and long term.
He asserted that the Government has already begun implementing the first phase.
Senior Executive Director of the college, Retired Colonel Lawrence Paul, said that the one-year cadet programme is designed to ensure that entry level public servants have the “expert knowledge and a high level of intelligence that is needed to carry out their functions,”
He informed the gathering also, that the Cadets will receive formal and informal training in 17 areas in preparation for public service. Paul said there will also be visits and attachments to public institutions as part of the training.
“The visits and attachments are meant to better prepare the cadets to take up their assigned roles in public service and widen their understanding of the structure and function of public institutions.
“More importantly they should be able to understand how Guyana works and should better appreciate why they should dispense their duties with integrity, impartiality and objectivity,” the retired Colonel added.
The college will seek to become the transformative institution that can bring about fundamental improvement in the performance and behaviour of public servants, he added.
Col. Paul is confident that in years to come, the college will churn out the future Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Departments.
The physical college will eventually be established at the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) headquarters in Ogle, East Coast Demerara. Paul said that construction works are still ongoing.
The Permanent Secretary of the Department of Public Service, Reginald Brotherson, said that the opening of the college was an exciting time in the development of Guyana.
He called for the eradication of “old ways” of doing things and spoke about the “loving, caring and understanding” Public Service that Guyana needs.
Brotherson said that the new recruits now have the opportunity to make the first move to show older public servants what they have learnt and in time, transfer that knowledge.
The college was named after Bertram Aggrey Collins, a Guyanese who contributed immensely to the Public Service.
He was born on September 21, 1930 in Georgetown and attended the University of Guyana; the University of the West Indies, Jamaica (1950-1953) where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree; the University of Paris (1953-1954); the University of Oregon (circa 1955) where he obtained a Masters of Arts in Political Sciences.
In 1957, he obtained a Doctorate in Philosophy.
He was instrumental in reforming the Public Service and was amongst those that conducted the first CoI into the Public Service decades ago. Some of these systems in the Public Service came out of his recommendations.
He wrote several books including one about racial imbalance in the Public Service. He died in 1997 at the age of 67.

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