The Public Service management audit team; it was appointed under a cloud of suspicion as rumors circulated of the impending retrenchment of as many as one thousand public servants.
But the team members were no one's hatchet men or women and they yesterday submitted their report to cabinet. The team proposed a number of recommendations for improvement in public sector management and the optimization of resources.
Minister of the Public Service, Hon. Said Musa told us that the main recommendation is that everyone will have to toughen up.
Hon. Said Musa,
"We will now move towards implementation of some of the serious issues that affect the bureaucracy. Inefficiency that exists there, the waste that is going on and those are the things that we have to address."
Jules Vasquez,
"Is there going to be a toughening up of the public service?"
Hon. Said Musa,
"Yes but I think the toughening up has to start at the top. I had a very candid meeting with the CEOs and I made them understand that examples have to be set by them - the heads of departments and CEOs. If you expect the people at the lower rank to perform, they must be motivated and there is no better way to motivate someone than to be out there and communicate with their people, and not only their ones in Belmopan."
The audit team was chaired by CEO Carla Barnett.