Tomorrow will be observed worldwide as United Nations Public Service Day.
The first celebration of public servants started back in 2002. It is done each year on June 23 to recognize their value to the community, highlight the contribution of public service in the development process of nations, and recognize public servants' work.
However, in Belize, the public sector has turned it into an entire week of activities, which started on Monday. This morning, we stopped by their Public Service Information Fair in Belize City, and Daniel Ortiz has that story:
Since Monday, the Ministry of the Public Service and the public officers countrywide have been celebrating the annual Public Service Week.
It's a nod of respect to the thousands of Belizeans who give generously of their time in service to their country and fellow citizens.
Henry Charles Usher - Minister of Public Service
"It's highlighting achievements, embracing innovations, inspiring the future. But I like celebrating achievements as well because that is what this week is all about. It's about celebrating the achievements of our public officers, especially over the last couple of years."
"It's an annual event, Daniel, that we have been celebrating in the country for just under twenty years now. It is a national and international event where public officers are celebrated worldwide. Public Service Day is actually tomorrow, June 23rd, and we're having a ceremony in Dangriga to highlight and celebrate the officers that have served the country for ten years, fifteen years all the way up to thirty-five years. So, I want to first off congratulate those public officers for giving so many years of service to their country and to the people of Belize."
For today's celebration of public servants in Belize City, several government departments set up information booths in the parking lot of the Belize City Civic Center. Among those represented were the Scenes of Crime personnel, different entities under the Ministry of Health, the Social Security Board, the Police Department, the Labour Department, and the Belize Postal Service.
Shenique Michael - Representative, Belize Postal Service
"We offer services such as mail delivery. We have the express service. We have the registered and we have the regular service."
Reporter
"What are some of the lesser-known things that you think Belizeans should know or underutilize from the postal service?"
"Well, we have an express service that has a tracking number. you can track your mail online at USPS.com, the same service that FedEx offers but our service starts a little cheaper, like ninety dollars to go to the US. So, you can send something that weighs about two pounds to the United States for only ninety dollars."
Reporter
"What are some of the reactions that you get from some of the customers. very grateful individuals or are they harshly critical of the…"
"Well with the service we get both but most of the time we get people that tell us 'wow, we didn't know that you offer this service because we offer cash on delivery. Someone can send something and you pay for it when you receive the package and that is countrywide. You cannot send it internationally, but you can send it locally."
Emir Castaneda - Health Educator, Ministry of Health & Wellness
"Here we have the Ministry of Health and Wellness stationed here. We are highlighting health information. Most of what we are highlighting here is preventative measures."
Marcelle Theus - Labour Officer, Belize City Labour Department
"Labour officers also are almost like counselors. When people come to us they are really mad. The reason is because of the misunderstanding, maybe, out there by other people who give advice and they are not labor officers. and so we always say to come to the labor department and we will tell you what the law says. Not what we think or what you think. Only what the law says and that's how we calm most people. And yes, as you get a job some workers don't understand that your right is to ask your hours of work and if you are going to get holiday off, overtime pay and most importantly, what is my salary. What people do here is to get a job and then they ask questions after they become disgruntled. And that's why labor is here."
While these public officers are the ambassadors who have very ably represented their respective departments, one uncomfortable fact is that some in the public tend to generalize and speak disparagingly about the faces of the public sector. For example, they may label all public servants - even the dedicated and hard-working ones - as inefficient, lazy, or inconsiderate of the many sacrifices Belizeans must make to access the critical public services they are employed to provide.
Minister Henry Charles Usher told the press that the different leaders in the most infamous government departments are self-aware and are brainstorming ways of reducing all the pain points and bottlenecks that cause friction.
Henry Charles Usher
"I certainly don't agree that it's happening every single day or in every single department. We have had, you know, some examples of bad service being provided to the Belizean people but we are working on those. We are working through our quality assurance department or customer service department to address those issues on an individual basis, on a specific basis."
Reporter
"The survey on customer service, is that finished?"
Henry Charles Usher
"I Believe that Friday is going to be the last day when they will be calling around and then we will be getting the report from the team, the consultants who were contracted to do that survey. What they found is that there are certain hot button departments that we really have to address, Vital Statistics being one of them, Passport/Immigration being another one and the Lands Department being the third real hot button department. So, we need to work with the CEOs in those particular ministries and with the customer relations officers in those ministries to make sure that we address the overall experience of Belizeans going in to get that service."
Some very senior public officers have overcome all of the daily challenges of their careers to provide more than 30 years of continued service delivery to the general public.
Henry Charles Usher
"Just last night I was at a roundtable discussion in Dangriga where we were talking about challenges coming out of COVID and one of the public officers there has been working for thirty-six years and we have some public officers that have been there for more than thirty-six, approaching forty years and it really highlights the professionalism of these individuals where they have able to give their life really to public service, to serving the people and you know with getting not as much reward as they would have gotten in the private sector, but doing it because they love their country and they want to be a part of the development of this nation."
During the UN Public Service Day tomorrow, the Ministry will formally recognize the longest-serving public officers.
