The Editor,
I have felt most distressed learning of the passing of Vic (Persaud), the name by which I always called my friend and colleague, since we were clerks in the colonial Civil Service in the 1950s. And civil we all were. As it turned out Vic became a professional in such an attribute as he counselled Guyana’s Presidents over the years. He thrived in those times when there was the system of consistent annual performance appraisal of every civil/public servant, some of whom would earn even double increments.
So on reflection, one wonders how, despite his acknowledged high performance, Vic adapted to being treated as equal to the many under-performers who were awarded ‘annual increases’ by ‘progressive’ administrations. The performance appraisal system to which he was inculcated, and had served to motivate, having disappeared, did not in any way relent him from functioning at the highest level, and with increasing authority. But the other environmental transition he had to experience would have been the formal requirement to retire from the Public Service at the mandatory (colonial) age of fifty five (55) years.
However, Vic continued to serve in the singular capacity in which he was so insistently needed, perhaps longer than any other public servant. Chances are he would not have expressed too much concern about being transitioned to the status of ‘Contracted Employee’
peremptorily conceived sometime later for the rest of his extended career. Remuneratively, he would have moved from pensionable status at fifty-five to that of receiving a gratuity semi-annually. Posthumously however, appraisal of his high level of performance was contained in the eulogies of all the living Presidents, and Opposition.
Opportunity is taken here to point out that Guyana remains the only country in the Caribbean region, and indeed the rest of the world, that insists on a retirement age for its public servants of below sixty (60) years – an anachronism established since 1969 when with the National Insurance Scheme set the latter age as eligibility for a Pension. No Administration up to now has bothered to pay attention to this incongruity. The lapse certainly would not have affected Vic’s performance. We would exchange banter when monthly we met at the Campbellville Post Office to cash our pension cheques, including the Old Age one of course. I will miss this irreplaceable colleague the next time I go. Vaya con Dios!
Sincerely,
E.B. John
