Public servants need whistleblower protection

- Goolsarran

There is a need for whistleblower protection legislation for the public service, according to former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran, who argued yesterday that it would protect those public servants who speak out about wrongdoings committed by their superiors.

“We don’t have whistleblower protection and therefore people are reluctant [to come forward]. Whistleblower protection legislation is very important to protect the rights of those people who see wrongdoing…they are faced with a situation where they can’t confront… their superiors and they are hurt or they believe in the public interest and therefore they want to speak to someone. So we need to protect them,” he said during the continuation of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Public Service.

Anand Goolsarran
Anand Goolsarran

Goolsarran took the stand for the first time yesterday and during his almost two-hour long testimony he spoke of how badly the public service has deteriorated, particularly with contract workers being treated better than those in the traditional public service. He also used the occasion to lobby for the age of retirement to be changed to 60 years from the present 55 and a Christmas bonus across the board for public servants.

Addressing CoI Chairman Professor Harold Lutchman and Commissioners Samuel Goolsarran and Sandra Jones and others at a public hearing at the Department of Public Service, Goolsarran informed that the 2012 estimates of revenue and expenditure indicated that there were 18,819 public servants, excluding teachers, policemen and army ranks. He added that out of this figure 3,806 or 20% were contracted employees.

He opined that the practice of having large numbers of contract employees on staff still exists but he could not say if the numbers now are as high as they were in 2012. He told the commissioners that 66% or 156 out of 238 employees in the Office of the President (now Ministry of Presidency), 61% in the Office of the Prime Minister and 53% in the Ministry of Finance were contract workers. This situation was more prevalent in ministries than in regional offices, he noted.

“I am very concerned about the situation with contracted employees. I honestly feel and honestly believe that we are operating with two public services; one is the traditional public service and one is parallel and what I might describe as the elitist public service,” he said, while adding that these employees were recruited with compensation packages “significantly higher” than that which was given to those in the employ of the traditional public service.

Sidelined

Goolsarran said he believed that the traditional public service has been sidelined and he opined that this situation may have contributed greatly to the “low morale” of those in the traditional public service. “When you have a situation where the contracted employees occupy the senior positions, there is no room for (upward) mobility,” he said, before adding that this can create a disincentive to those in the traditional public service to “give of their best.”

He later said that Guyana inherited a good public service from the British when it gained independence. However about two years later things started to change for the worse. “My view is that in 1966, when we gained independence, the British handed us one of the best public services…we started to tamper with it in 1968…to like 1992, 24 (years). So we have had a complete reorientation of the public service. We have distanced ourselves from a politically neutral public service, serving the government of the day…we have distanced ourselves from a professional highly trained public service whose members are willing to serve any government of the day,” he said. He added that in 1992 “we continued in the same vein” and around 1997 or closer to 2000 “it got worse with these contracted employees.”

Goolsarran said that he subscribed to the fundamental principles of the public service, including that members should not hold office in any political post and should not engage members of the public on a political platform or engage members of the press on public matters. “That will destroy the neutrality of the public service. It will destroy the professional that we so dearly want of the public service,” he said.

He further said that public servants should not allow their political affiliations to influence their work. “It becomes worse when you identify yourself with a particular political party publicly and far worse if you are a candidate for the elections… far worse, if you decide that you are going to become a Member of Parliament… you can’t serve two masters at the same time,” he asserted.

Goolsarran stated that one ought to remember that governments come and go and it is the public service that ensures a transition from one government to the next.

He said that there are very few persons who are putting the public’s interest before their own. “Given the Guyana situation and our own experience since independence, there has been a tendency for even our best brains, in order to further their own personal interest, they are prepared to sacrifice the public interest by being politically-aligned when they are supposed to stand up and say this is not right. These are the rules,” he said.

Goolsarran added that what he also dislikes about the public service is that promotion is based on years of service alone and not service in addition to academic qualification. “I have grappled with that in the audit office and today we are paying the price for that…just sit on the job, do whatever you have to do and you will get your promotion,” he said, before opining that government should move away from using seniority as the requirement for promotions.

Further, Goolsarran said that the age of retirement should be 60 and not 55. “I am 65 and I think I am at the peak”, he said even as he spoke of bridging the gap between the age of retirement and 60, when NIS pension is first collected.

On the question of a Christmas bonus being given to the Disciplined Services to the exclusion of the other categories of public servants, Goolsarran said, “It is an unfair system and you can speculate why this is happening.”

The inquiry, which has been set up by President David Granger to make recommendations on the role, functions, recruitment process, remuneration and conditions of service for public servants, will continue public hearings on Monday at 10 am.