PSA president warns: Leave public service alone

ONE day after the Prime Minister suggested that managers from the private sector should be allowed to head the public service, president of the Public Service Association (PSA) Leroy Baptiste says the public service should be left as is.

At the opening of Nutrimix’s Next Generation hatchery in Couva on Monday, Dr Rowley said there needs to be a revamping of the public service with the leaders, the permanent secretaries, coming from the private sector.

He said: “If I tell you now that it is my view that permanent secretaries (PS) should not only come from those who come up and float up to the top in the public service, but should also come from managers in the private sector who are hired into the public service to bring management skills to the public service, wait and hear what I’m being accused of.”

Baptiste said this approach is not new since, in the past, governments have created statutory bodies in the name of removing bureaucracy but the country is no better off now with them.

“You have had that kind of rhetoric...from time and time again and it has been the rationale for moving from the public service to various entities, for example the Ministry of Health. We moved on from the Ministry of Health staff to regional health authorities. Are we any better off?”

He said moves such as those suggested by Rowley will create avenues for politically-appointed leaders of the public service who will answer to those who appoint them

He referenced the Tourism Development Company and the Housing Development Corporation which once did work by public officials under the purview of the PS but are now managed by political appointees.

Rowley said on Monday: “Many of them (permanent secretaries) are not managers and do not assume managerial responsibility for the departments that they head, that impact so importantly on the day-to-day lives of persons, whether you are an investor or consumer. And we require some significant changes in the public service of the 21st century.”

Baptiste said the issue is not the iterations of public entities managed by private sector, but political involvement.

“The problem in this country has been the politicians and political interference and control that has stymied the development of this country.”

He cited, as an example, one state entity at which there were allegedly seven CEOs in just as many years.

“I reject the PM’s statement as being yet another attempt to exercise more political control, which amounts to political interference which will damage the insulation that the public service is supposed to have.”

Baptiste said Rowley’s statement will only allow politicians to circumvent the public service commissions and give politicians ultimate control which will not benefit the citizens.

Princes Town MP, Barry Padarath said the PM’s claim is more about Rowley and his Cabinet’s ineptitude as leaders rather than the inability of permanent secretaries to manage their departments.

As the shadow minister of public administration, Padarath said the buck stops with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

“A PS can be moved by a Prime Minister by being reassigned with a stroke of a pen. Therefore, it is disingenuous for Rowley to give the impression that permanent secretaries are to blame for poor project management and stymieing the process of getting work done.”

He said permanent secretaries are not the ones making Cabinet decisions or formulating government policies, adding that under Rowley the government placed several former permanent secretaries on state boards and in advisory positions at various ministries.