Public Administration Minister hopes for work-from-home policy in 2024

PUBLIC Administration Minister Allyson West hopes a draft work-from-home (WFH) policy can be produced in fiscal 2024.

She expressed this hope before the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives approved a $681,331,924 budgetary allocation for her ministry.

West said a request for proposals (RFP) was issued to parties interested in developing a WFH policy.

She told MPs there was a successful response to that RFP, and a draft policy could hopefully be developed within the next fiscal year.

At a committee meeting last October, Planning and Development Minister Pennelope Beckles-Robinson said Government continues to look at the feasibility of a WFH policy.

She added that her ministry is collaborating with the Public Administration Ministry so she could not give a timeline.

But she said, "For us, this is an important exercise."

In its 2020 general election manifesto, the PNM identified implementing a WFH policy for the public and private sectors as one of its campaign promises.

Last March, then leader of government business in the Senate Clarence Rambharat said a sub-committee comprising parliamentary secretaries and heads of departments of the ministries of Planning and Development, Public Administration, Labour, Energy, the Office of the Prime Minister and the Personnel Department were looking at this matter.

Rambharat said the sub-committee's work at that time included research on the best practices and a survey done between September and December 2020.

But at a news conference last September, after Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the budget, the Prime Minister said the public sector was not ready for a major WFH policy.

"I don't know that we are sufficiently prepared for that to be a major initiative, largely because it requires certain technical infrastructure and a certain level of discipline.

"Some people not even working in the office, so we have to be careful how we talk about that."

Dr Rowley noted that some private-sector entities have WFH arrangements.

On Wednesday, West said within its budgetary allocation, the ministry has $48 million to deal with repairs and upgrades of public buildings.

She identified the Port of Spain International Waterfront Centre and the Education Tower in Port of Spain as some of the buildings that require attention in fiscal 2024.