With the country poised for transformation in the coming years with the advent of the oil and gas sector, President David Granger Wednesday morning highlighted the need for a transformed public service.
According to President Granger, the modern public service demands competent, proficient, and versatile workers, who can adapt consistently to new technology.
The President was speaking at the Guyana Public Service Union’s 23rd Biennial Delegates’ Conference held at State House.
He outlined why the public service is so important to need highly-skilled workers.
“The Public Service provides administrative services to citizens, communities, companies and to the entire country.
“The Public Service offers agricultural services, birth, business and death registration, immigration services, port health services, postal services, legal and local government services, public education, public health, public infrastructure, public telecommunication, public security and social security, and the list goes on.
“The Public Service is indispensable to any modern state. It is a necessity if citizens’ lives are to be improved and an enabling environment for businesses is to be created,” he stated.
According to the President, a corps of highly trained and competent public servants is essential to ensuring the delivery of quality and timely public services.
“The Public Service has changed since those slow, sluggish days. It has become a more complex network of agencies, departments and Ministries offering a variety of services to the wider urban, rural, hinterland and even international communities in terms of the Foreign Service.
“It has also become more competitive and the people who acquire new skills can perform better than their colleagues, will move further, faster,” he stated.
He said the public service must be extended and expanded to the hinterland regions and public servants must be prepared to leave coastland and serve in the hinterland.
He gave an example of the inequalities which existed.
“Incredibly, a person wanted to register a business in Lethem in the Rupununi had to travel 450 km to Anna Regina, in the Pomeroon/Supenaam region to register his/her business.”
The President said inequality must be eliminated structurally and each region must have its own capital town and become a hub for the provision of services to people.
He said the transformation will quicken after 2020 and the public sector must be reconfigured to meet the needs.
“The Public Service is being reconfigured to better regulate our economic sectors – including our natural resources and telecommunications sector – and to protect the environment.
“The Public Service, in the discharge of its regulatory role, will require more specialized and highly-skilled public servants.”
