Vieira: Reform service commissions

Senator Anthony Vieira said his objective in calling for an update of the Constitution and reform of the service commissions is to strengthen and rejuvenate the commissions. He called on government to look seriously at the matter, come up with recommendations and bring them before Parliament.

He made the statement on Tuesday at the conclusion of the debate on a motion he brought on the topic in the Senate. He said the commissions needed updating, as the existing conditions were not working.

During the debate, Senator Paula Gopee-Scoon said legislation and enforcement must be used to engender pride in the public service. She said the commissions must adopt a digital approach to move forward and to make gains in favour of the public. On the basis of a report by a consultant on the functioning of the trade and licensing unit of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, she said there will be reform of the hiring process as well as the implementation of new institutional frameworks to enhance capacity and operations.

She said there needed to be update and reform to ensure a more efficient public service, for which both the government and the opposition need to be on board.

Independent Senator Amrita Deonarine called for an assessment of widescale public need, including detailed micro-econometric analysis. She said many technical staff are on short-term contracts, while clerical staff are often permanent, leading to technocrats being short-changed in delivering efficient service.

Senate vice president Nigel De Freitas said whichever party comes into power has to use the same civil service, and it is therefore in the best interest of both parties to come together to reform the service commissions. He said sentimentality on the subject of the Constitution and a reluctance to change because “this is how it’s always been” or a fear that it will get worse cannot be allowed to stand in the way of reform.

Independent Senator Varma Deyalsingh said people used to be proud to work for the public service. He said any reform of the service commissions should retain the safeguards which insulate people holding or acting in public office from political influence, patronage and discrimination. This reform should examine the frustration of contract workers.

There had been two joint select committees on the matter, he said, and their recommendations should have and should still be implemented.

Government senator Dr Amery Browne said TT has some of the best public servants anywhere in the world, but “they are called to work in a framework that is archaic, deficient, slow, and in need of improvement.” He said the service commissions are calling for help and government should listen to their pleas before attempting to intervene. He said young people feel they are wasting their time trying to approach service commissions to be employed in the civil service.

Browne noted the frustration of contract workers who could not approach banks and other institutions because they only had short-term contracts. He said other people affected by the deficiencies in the public service included civil servants who retired with grouses and government scholars whose talents were lost to TT because the recruitment process was so slow.

“Promotion is not done on merit but on seniority, and that pains me. I’m not satisfied with that reality. We can’t keep the constitution due to sentimentality and just address resources. We could increase staff and resources, but we will get poor results if the system remains archaic."

He concluded, "We need a revolution in how we reform the human resource of TT.”