Hinds: PSC issues must not be repeated in Tobago

JOINT select committee (JSC) member Fitzgerald Hinds has questioned whether the setting up of a Tobago Service Commission will repeat the issues plaguing the Public Service Commission (PSC).

He was speaking as the JSC for the Constitution (Amendment) (Tobago Self-Government) Bill 2018 met with the Director of Personnel Administration (DPA) Debra Parkinson and other officials yesterday at the ANR Robinson room, Parliament Building, Port of Spain.

Hinds said, “It is now accepted in TT that this formulation of the service commission has its own challenges. I know it exists in other parts of the region and so on. But the concept of the service commission has presented our country with severe challenges from the very start and they persist to this very day.

“So when we are now contemplating replicating a service commission for Tobago, knowing that the one for TT is as problematic as it is and under review in terms of the way this country should move forward, I start to have some issues because we are going to be repeating something that there is a general feeling has not been serving this country in the way it ought to or that it was expected to when it was established in 1962.”

Hinds said it must be considered whether a Tobago Service Commission was desirable and whether there was a better way to administer the island’s affairs what was learned in TT. Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles told the meeting that, notwithstanding the current flaws with the Service Commission, The Tobago Forum of Political Parties felt very strongly that if this model if the best one to administer the affairs of the island at this time “we need to have that model.”

Deputy Director of Personnel Administration Marcia Pile-O’Brady told the JSC issues the civil service in Tobago were not dealt with in a timely manner. She said this included the appointment of officers, appointment of acting officers and promotions. She said, however, a major problem was there were no records in the Tobago office of the PSC as they were in Trinidad under the DPA who is the custodian. She also said without a proper information technology backbone and with the economic downturn the servicing of the Tobago office had fallen “by the wayside.”

Parkinson said the Service Commissions Department, as part of their institutional strengthening, will be implementing the Electronic Document Management System by next year and that would allow for the files of officer to be electronically sent from Trinidad to Tobago.