By Shanna K. Salmon
KINGSTON, Jamaica, (JIS) – Minister of finance and the public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, says the transformation of the public sector is “critically important” to the country’s development.
Speaking at the start of a series of engagements with public sector employees hosted by the Transformation Implementation Unit (TIU), recently, minister Clarke noted that there are three main imperatives driving the transformation – fiscal, addressing the governance deficit, and the need to improve service delivery.
In terms of the fiscal imperatives, Dr Clarke noted that “the government of Jamaica does not have infinite resources and therefore, we have to organise our public sector in a way that allows us to optimise the use of our resources.”
He said that transforming the public sector will also ensure that entities operate by the highest standards and principles of governance.
“In a democracy, public trust and credibility are the only currencies that we have, and in order to ensure that public trust and public credibility are at their highest, we have to be seen to be doing our best to have a well-organised and efficient public service, and obvious gaps need to be addressed,” Dr Clarke said.
The minister noted that if the gaps are not addressed, then the credibility of the government, as well as Jamaica’s democracy will be harmed.
“The third critical reason why we have to embark on this is to ensure that we enhance service delivery,” said Dr Clarke, adding that when people engage with one arm of the government, the person on the other end of the interaction becomes the personification of the entire government.
Executive director, TIU, Maria Thompson Walters, explained that the public sector transformation programme, being implemented by the entity aims to “build a unified public service that is modern, fair, values people and delivers high-quality customer-centred services.”
She said that the programme focuses on five key pillars:
- Public Sector Efficiency ;
- Information Communications Technologies (ICT);
- Shared Corporate Services;
- Rationalisation of Public Bodies, Human Resource Management Transformation; and,
- Compensation Management.
