Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, has declared that public servants can expect an increase in wages and salaries this year and an even bigger one next year, after government “would have won the General Elections”, but cautioned that this increase must be matched by an improvement in performance and in the delivery of public services.
Jordan was at the time speaking at the launch of the Budget 2020 Sensitisation and Training Sessions, held at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre yesterday.
“…Managers must manage and supervisors must supervise. Productivity must rise, if we are [to] achieve a modern, competitive nation. It is difficult comprehending why we have to install electric time clocks to track the punctuality of workers and their comings and goings during working hours. And the tracking cannot only relate to the ordinary worker. It has to be enforced from top to the bottom,” the minister noted, going on to reference cases where senior personnel take time to engage on social media during working hours, “when they should be attending to the public or otherwise engaged in activities for which they are being paid”.
“Irrespective of our impending new status, more money will mean nothing to us, will not result in our advancement, if we are not disciplined in our approach and outlook,” he advised.
The minister advised that public servants must be driven by results and not process, stating that assessing performance across all sectors is critical for ensuring that the country remains focused on its target of achieving a “diversified, resilient, low-carbon, people-centred vision as articulated by His Excellency President David Granger”.
Drawing attention to the slothful implementation of the Public Sector Investment Programme, he stated that poor management, ineffective planning and in many instances, civil works, were to blame and that the absence of an adequate number of engineers has compromised the pace and quality of infrastructural development. Improved conditions of service and salary and allowances are solutions for those issues, he said.
“In that regard, salary improvements to attract higher number of qualified engineers to the central government is under active consideration; it is expected to be approved, shortly,” he revealed.
With regards to the Teaching and Public Services, Jordan noted that government has already set up committees to examine the wages and salaries and allowances in those areas, and while the committee for teachers is up and running, the one dedicated to public service is “taking a little time to get going”.
The opposition PPP has condemned plans by the government to proceed with the 2020 budget in light of the motion of no confidence that was passed against it in December, 2018.
GSDS and budget planning
Jordan reiterated that the Green State Development Strategy will be guiding government’s budgeting for 2020 and beyond.
“Next year is certainly a propitious one. Guyana is about to join the world of oil producing nations! This will mean substantially improved fiscal space, that is, room for spending substantially more on goods and services and the public sector investment programme. If we effectively manage the petroleum resources that are anticipated to flow from this new revenue stream, we will be able to accelerate the pace of economic transformation and development that hitherto we have yearned for but which has proven to be elusive to date,” he stated.
He noted that the transfer of oil funds from the Natural Resource Fund to the National Budget will allow for “front loading of development spending”, while allowing government to retain sufficient resources to be saved for future generations and to be used as a buffer given the “fickle nature of oil prices”.
“Over time it is expected that the investment of those savings will result in interest earned to feed into the National Budget long after oil is finished,” he reasoned.
Regional Development Plans
Government has begun implementing Plans for Action for Regional Development (PARDS), Jordan revealed, relating that Regions Nine and 10 are substantially advanced in guiding their Budget 2020 interventions.
PARDS are part of government’s plan to have every region implement a regional development plan to realise the objectives of the GSDS.
“We must use the lessons learned from the two experiences of developing the PARDS to accelerate the development of regional strategic plans in the eight remaining Regions,” Jordan said.
He stated that supportive infrastructure and renewable energy must serve to catalyse the necessary development to transition the hinterland regions to high performing regions, where service delivery is comparable to that of the coast.
Indeed, I look forward to the day when coastlanders can journey to the hinterland to live and work with the same level of anticipation as many have done to go to yonder shores. I look forward to the day when the high schools in Mabaruma, Kamarang and Paramakatoi are able to deliver the same quality of education as a top performing high school in Georgetown. I look forward to the day when the maternity patient is able to deliver her baby comfortably and safely in the hospital in Region 7, just as she would be expected to do in our national referral hospital. That is what we need to work towards; that is what we have to deliver; and that is what you, as Heads of Budget Agencies and senior officials in the public service, must reach for and work towards the transformation and development of our nation through every budget cycle. Surely, this is the only pathway to the good life, to which we all aspire,” Jordan said.
Furthermore, he noted that strengthening the systems of monitoring and evaluation continue to be priority, and thus far, nearly 700 public servants have been trained so that they are equipped with knowledge to ensure the successful implementation of each budget in their respective agencies.
“This week, we commenced what I think is a first in strengthening our public investment management – the training of a core set of Budget Agencies on how to develop their project concept notes from a more scientific basis, so that we can ensure that projects coming into the budget are criteria-based and clearly demonstrate linkages to achieving a Green State,” Jordan said.
