The Government of Guyana in collaboration with the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (Caricad) is inviting public-spirited citizens to offer comments on the Draft Charter for Caribbean Public Servants.
The draft was developed as part of a mandate given to Caricad by the Ministers of Public Administration who were assembled at a symposium in Port of Spain in July of 2015.
At this symposium it was agreed that Caricad should spearhead efforts to develop a Charter for Caribbean Public Servants and that appropriate consultations should take place in Caricad member states prior to consideration by ministers of government at a second symposium.
Since that time Caricad has produced both a draft charter and an accompanying draft implementation guide. These documents have been sent for consultations in member states. Consultations have since been held in other member states resulting in the gathering of comments and recommendations to which Guyana is being asked to contribute.
Six specific questions have been provided to guide feedback though contributions outside these parameters will still be accepted.
The first area for comment is the idea of the charter; persons are asked to state how they feel about the proposed charter and to explain what challenges must be overcome for such a charter to be accepted in Guyana.
They are then asked to identify priorities for the implementation of the charter, specific programmes for implementation in Guyana, suggestions for ensuring the charter is embraced by public officers and how Caricad can assist its member states to implement the charter.
The draft charter, which is available at http://www.caricad.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Draft-Charter-for-Public-Services.pdf, once accepted would, according to the Caricad website, indicate the acceptance of the precepts, concepts, principles and values that would underpin a newly harmonized approach to the functioning of the public sectors of participating states.
The draft explains that it was developed as a result of member states being convinced of the critical importance of the public service to economic and social development; recognising the importance of the public authorities to such development as highlighted in Article 76 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community including the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, and further recalling those commitments undertaken in the Charter for Civil Society for the Caribbean Community, especially the undertaking “to preserve the existence of an independent career public service which is open to all on the basis of merit and is effective, efficient, responsive and adaptive in its conduct of public administration.”
As such, the charter will establish a common ethical basis for the delivery of public services in subscribing states – ensuring that the public services of the region are effective, efficient, responsive, adaptive and service oriented; form a basis for the delivery of quality and innovative service that meets the needs of our societies; foster collaboration of subscribing states in modernising administration and strengthening institutional capacity for improved public services and encourage the harmonisation of policies and procedures related to public service and administration among member states with the aim of promoting regional integration.
The draft implementation guide offers practical suggestions for transferring the concepts and principles into concrete action on an everyday basis in the workplace as well as several other resources to assist in consultations with stakeholders.
The members of Caricad are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as, Suriname, Belize and Guyana.
