Dear Editor,
My friend Nowrang Persaud in his letter to the editor, Stabroek News, et al, has ventured somewhat into an area of speculation, estranged as he would have been from any intimate relationship with the public service, and specifically with its long history – since colonial times – of an established performance merit compensation system.
The pro forma and even completed documentation relating to such an exercise, are easily accessible to an investigation.
The fact is, however, that this well-known practice, all too familiar to the Guyana Public Service Union, was mischievously aborted by the last regime, inclusive of whose objectives was the deliberate exclusion of that union from making representation on outcomes of a defaulting process.
Be assured there is still a significant proportion of public servants existing who bemoan, not only the destruction of a performance management structure which yielded merit increments, but which, perhaps more importantly, informed promotions, demotions and indeed terminations.
These personnel rather than viewing the process as a hard sell (whatever its
perceived limitations) they would certainly welcome its advantages, one of which is the release from the massive ‘bunching’ effect on salaries, created by the indiscriminate application of ‘across-the board’ increases over the past two decades.
What admittedly would be needed to achieve a modicum of success in re-introducing the performance merit system would be the most comprehensive training and re-training programme.
Yours faithfully,
E B John
