Need to focus on developing capacity within public service

Dear Editor, The front page headline of SN of September 23, 2018 makes reference to “US$14.5M grant for public service college, other areas.” However, there is no further mention of this specific item on pages 3 and 21, as directed.

Notwithstanding, one nurtures the hope that appropriate specificity about this project will be provided early, particularly to public servants who would be looking forward to benefitting from sorely needed training and development.

The observation is made in light of the initial invitation by the management of the institution to non-public service employees. In fact, the advertisement at the time, was aimed at secondary school graduates with minimum of six CSEC subjects, and who, it was emphasised, must have ambition to be Permanent Secretaries by age 40 years – via a virtual course programme of just more than a year, which included attachments to state agencies.

The sum mentioned in SN, it must be presumed, would be spent on raising the developmental bar for genuine senior public servants – a critical need. It must therefore involve the prerequisites of instituting a substantially greater human resources developmental capacity than now exists, particularly as none obtains within the Public Service itself.

One hopes to see the declaration of a strategy for public service staff development that would take into active consideration the almost tsunamic public and private organisational challenges that are being predicted for our society, right now and in the immediate future.

We look forward to the publication of the relevant documentation. Yours faithfully E.B. John