When is the Public Service to be Human Resourced?

Aug 06, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – It is an interesting construct, at least from a management perspective; as it also invites enquiry about the communication and decision-making processes in Public Administration.
According to the 2021 Budget approved by Parliament the highest government decision-making levels consist of the following:
Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister. (There appears to be no Office of the Vice President).
The above consists of 347 employees. In so far as can be identified there are additionally eighteen (18) Ministries that employ some 18,967 staff.
However, the celebratory presentation in SN of August 1 includes twenty-one (21) Ministers and one Senior Minister – in the Office of the President; while there are Junior Ministers within some Ministries.
The largest of the Ministries include:
Education – 3,153 employees
Health – 4,257 employees
Home Affairs – 8,172 employees
making a total of – 15,582 employees
Not to be overlooked however, is the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. For while the Local Government Ministry itself contains just 149 staff, the Regional Development component includes some 14,557 employees across the 10 Regions. This compares with the total of 18,967 employees in Offices and Ministries combined.
Presumably all these employees fall within the sapiential purview of the Ministry of Public Service which itself is equipped with exactly 106 staff; yet more than the following Ministries:
Tourism, Industry and Commerce – 105
Labour – 90
Housing and Water – 18
Parliamentary Affairs & Governance – 07
But what is truly interesting of the centerpiece of this organisational construct of the Ministry of Public Service is its core Human Resources Management capacity. One can only wonder how many of our decision-makers are aware, if at all interested in, the deliverables required from a function that is expected to be critical to the performance of public servants anywhere. But that this Division is not regarded as a substantive contributor to the thousands of human resources recorded above, is reflected in its manning levels, as follows:
Administrative – 4
Senior Technical – 2
Other Technical & Craft Skilled – 1
Clerical & Office Support – 3
Contracted Employees – 2 = 12
It must be a matter of concern about what these overlooked persons are required to contribute. Note that throughout the remaining Ministries the following continue to flourish:
Chief Personnel Officer – Grade 12
Principal Personnel Officer – Grade 11
Senior Personnel Officer – Grade 9
Personnel Officer II – Grade 6
Personnel Officer I – Grade 5
The single Human Resources Officer in the Ministry of Public Service is at the same level as a Senior Personnel Officer.
It is likely that any of the above would have had anything to do with the recruitment of the 2,365 Contracted Employees in the respective Ministries, and less with the 471 comparable recruits over the 10 Regions of which Region Nine employs the highest number 98, as compared to Region 6 – 68; and Region 4 – 39.
All the above statistics, of course, do not account for the Constitutional Agencies – Commissions, Tribunals, Audit Office of Guyana, etc.
Meanwhile there is still the pre-disposition toward recruiting the anachronistic ‘Typist/ Clerk’ (III, II and I) in this long acknowledged technological age.
Could someone please say where and when is the future of Human Resources Management in our Public Administration? But at the same time it may even be as critical to learn who evaluates the respective ranges of Ministerial responsibilities to arrive at an objectively factored compensation structure.
In the final analysis however, in the absence over the last three decades of any Performance Appraisals and Succession Plan, Human Resources Management may well be argued as being irrelevant.

Yours faithfully,
E. B. John

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