There is no merit appraisal for public servants, senior personnel officer in the central department of the Public Service Department within the Ministry of the Presidency Gail Williams revealed during yesterday’s proceedings of the Public Service Commission of Inquiry (CoI).
Addressing Chairman Professor Harold Lutchman and commissioners Samuel Goolsarran and Sandra Jones, she informed that public servants are given performance appraisals but these are not merit based. She said she did not know why the merit aspect of the appraisal was not implemented.
One of the concerns of the department is the across the board increases that are currently given to public servants. She explained that high-flyers as well as persons doing minimum work are given the same increase.
When asked what recommendation she would offer to address this system, she said, “My recommendation is to reintroduce performance appraisal which would merit persons for performance between the minimum, middle and maximum scales which is the exact purpose of that [performance appraisal].”
She further stated that the appraisal does not only cater for merit but looks at persons who need development. The development would compass training on the job as well as abroad on identified weaknesses. Also, she suggested that along with merit the attitude of public servants is an area of focus for lifting the standard of public service.
Williams was part of a training course in Japan and had made recommendations on performance management systems in Guyana.
However, when the commissioners inquired about the nexus between the recommendations from her training and the impact on the organisation, she disclosed that the recommendations had not been implemented. She noted that the training was useful in the operation of her work and agreed that there is a certain level of resistance to implementing changes.
The CoI also heard from two other officers from the central department. Junior Human Resource Management Consultant Kemo Benjamin speaking on the strengthening of the public service unit said that emphasis needs to be placed on motivating public servants. “…We need to focus more on training and development. There are a lot of persons who are in the public service and were never given an opportunity to try to maximize their talents,” he said.
“There should be a lot more job analysis done on certain jobs… And I would advocate for a review of the public service rules. I think persons are moving towards to a more policy-based HR [human resource] management. The public service rules are rigid, not as flexible as HR policies,” he added.
Ryan Cumberbatch, system development coordinator, during his testimony stated that the department is still using Dell computers manufactured in 2006. “[The Ministry of] Finance has a rule whereby they do not issue money to buy computers and that hampers us a bit because we are stuck with these old computers,” he said.
He also recommended that funds be budgeted for the development of ICT and to cater for software. He said, “You find sometimes that you have to download, hack and crack… Budget for legal software and this would help with our copyright issue.”
The Commission of Inquiry will reconvene tomorrow at 10 am at the Department of Public Service.
