…calls made for reintroduction of merit systemBy Sunita SamarooAssistant Development Coordinator, Ryan Cumberbatch offering testimony before the Public Service Commission of Inquiry yesterdayBefore an attentive audience workers who have been employed for years in the Public Service Department, formerly known as the Ministry of Public Service, made several starting revelations. They said that the Ministry was void of a database to keep track of its assets or their distribution.Workers told Commissioners that copyright violations for software were being encouraged at the level of the Ministry. New staffers in all Ministries were not treated to orientation and training programmes available at various Ministries were exclusive to those selected.Statements were also to the effect that a number of recommendations for improvement in the public service from specialists, unions and even staff? upon their return from foreign training programmes, were ignored.As the second day into the Public Service Commission of Inquiry got underway, its Chairman, Professor Harold Lutchman along with Commissioners Sarah Jones and Samuel Goolsarran heard calls for in-depth job analysis to guiding job descriptions, a performance appraisal system, reviewing of public service rules as well as the mandatory retirement age.They were told that motivation was lacking in the public service and training and development were areas that should be addressed.First to testify was Gail Williams, a Senior Personnel Officer attached to the Department of Public Service, within the Ministry of the Presidency. Williams stated that she has been trained in Industrial Relations, Commonwealth Training in Public Service Administration, Human Resource training in Japan, among others.From her training in Japan, Williams prepared a paper seeking to advise the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration on approaches that can be adopted seeking to reintroduce performance appraisal in the public service.According to her it was never implemented. The training, she affirmed,Nike NFL Jerseys China, was useful but its impact was never realised.At this juncture, Professor Lutchman queried whether it was a commonplace for persons to be sent on training and despite successfully completing them and returning to these shores with a slew of ideas; the implementation aspect is met with a certain level of resistance because the hierarchy may be ignorant of the new concepts.She said that various consultants made recommendations to have the performance management appraisals reintroduced into the public service.? A similar approach, she said, exists for promotion but not for merits.“We don’t have the merit increment system…I know that representation has been made to the then government time and time to have it in place,? but I do not know what is the mechanism that is holding it back,” expressed Williams.At present, she said there is no incentive for those public servants who would go beyond the call of duty. They were under a system where those are given annual increase,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, the same as those whose performance is bare minimum.Williams recommended the reintroduction of performance appraisal which will merit persons for performance between the minimum, mid and max scale. The practice has been abandoned but Williams recalled that initially there were different percentages attached to each merit level.“We should have a proper appraisal system,Cheap Jerseys NFL China, with a proper merit increment scheme,” said Williams.Merit, she highlighted,? was only part of the appraisal system. The system should pave the way for improvement to public servants in need, in form of development training, inter alia.“My dream for the public service is for a more strategic-driven public service: set our goals, set our plans that we have for the public service and we work towards that,Authentic NFL Jerseys Cheap,” expressed the Senior Personnel Officer.Williams is a member of a department of key functionaries in the personnel department, keeping an eye on all personnel functions in every ministry across the country. She said that they keep an inventory of authorized position, evaluate and grade those positions, examine allowances and make recommendations.Williams was questioned on the benchmark system inherited in 1994 that catered for 75 positions across the public service. She explained that with the advent of new job titles, they evaluate and graded the position based on the “family” in which it may fall.The system, she suggested, should be reviewed as some of the positions listed have been made obsolete because those functions are no longer required or carried out in the manner prescribed as well as technology replacing so