Cuts to the work force of the headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat are not imminent, according to Acting Secretary General Lolita Applewhaite.
She gave this assurance in her address at the Opening Ceremony of the Twenty-Second Inter-sessional Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government in Grenada yesterday, according to a press release from the Secretariat.
Applewhaite stated that the Community Council of Ministers had ensured that the Secretariat, while containing costs, would carry out its work programme. The prevailing economic circumstances in CARICOM Member States, she said, had necessitated that the CARICOM Secretariat tightens its belt; but this will not result in the laying off of staff. “The Secretariat, in presenting its reduced budget to the Community Council took account of the conditions in our Member States and their ability to contribute to the Secretariat’s budget among so many other competing calls on their slim resources,” she said.
She added: “The reduced budget will not mean a cutting of staff but it will mean managing what we do better by using even more innovative methods. It will mean continuing to do more with less. It will mean not filling some positions as they become vacant. But it will not mean the laying off of staff.”
