President David Granger continues to defend his appointment of 25 ministers in addition to the Prime Minister—which some say are too many—and added that his government revolves around 14 core ministries.
In major reforms to the public service in 1991, the then PNC government had slashed the number of ministries from 18 to 11. The now PNCR is a major component of the APNU+AFC coalition, raising the question as to why the new government had expanded the number of ministers and ministries considering the reforms of that period and the need for prudent expenditure.
Responding to questions from this newspaper during Thurs-day’s taping of the Ministry of the Presidency’s television programme the ‘Public Interest’, Granger said the number of core ministries during that PNC period in government had been found to be incapable of bearing the workload. He noted that his government currently has 14 core ministries.
Apart from the initial core ministries being unable to bear the weight of the work load, President Granger said that there are six partners in the coalition and as part of the Cummingsburg Accord the coalition had committed that the AFC would have gotten certain ministries and there was also the question of proportionality.
“In fact there are only 14 core ministries…the Ministry of the Presidency has several major departments which are treated as ministries…so it is not as though there is a massive Cabinet, the Cabinet technically is smaller than it was under the PPP,” he maintained.
Further pressed, the President acknowledged that there is a large number of non-Cabinet ministers within the various ministries.
Meanwhile, speaking about his quest to implement major changes in the public service, the Presi-dent pointed out that the country cannot run without an efficient public service and combined with its efficiency is professionalism which means that the persons who enter the service must aim at making it a career.
“Without an efficient public service no part of this country could run, not aviation, not public health, not police or law enforcement. So what I want to do is to make sure that people are properly trained and well educated before they enter the public service,” the President said.
He also stated that regardless of which political party is in office he wants to see public servants performing their functions efficiently.
Granger recalled that days after he became President he had expressed the wish for a strong public service that cannot be bribed and he said the plan is still on stream to establish a public service college.
“At the higher level…we want to see more career public servants so that when new ministers or political appointees enter their jobs at a upper level there will be a cadre of trained public servants to advise and guide and do research and provide information for them,” Granger stated, adding that at the end of the next five years there will be a stronger and efficient public service.
