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Govt. loses 19 engineers in two years to private sector -Mid-Year Report
The roles of engineers are critical to the development of infrastructural works. However, from 2017 to first half of this year, 19 engineers have left the public sector. This was highlighted in the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report which noted that the engineers have since sought employment within the private sector.
This shortfall has resulted in a shortage of critical positions which has resulted in the delay of several infrastructural projects. According to the report, “The infrastructure sector continued to face challenges with implementation, resulting mainly from a lack of staff in critical positions. Human capacity constraints also stymied planning, procurement and contract management.”
Cognizant that this is a serious issue, government has implemented a measure to attract and retain staff whereby an updated compensation structure for engineers and technicians was approved last month. Hence, it is expected that the engineering corps will be augmented significantly going forward, the report noted.
In 2016, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson had reported that there was a shortage of engineers. Patterson had said the shortage at the time was primarily the cause of delays in the implementation of several projects. The Minister had pointed out that government could not compete with the salaries being offered in the private sector.
Patterson had explained that government was finding it difficult to recruit qualified engineers, more so graduate engineers. He had also disclosed that the Public Service Commission was offering a salary of $80,000 to a graduate engineer.
Notwithstanding this, infrastructure connectivity across all ten administrative Regions remains a core priority within the national infrastructure programme. Of the $38.5 billion allocated for infrastructure for 2019, approximately $16.5 billion was spent during the first half of the year. Of that amount, $5.2 billion was current and $11.3 billion was capital expenditure.
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