BAHAMAS
A senior Public Servant has been quoted as saying Bahamian Ministries are failing to properly manage and develop personnel, and there is “major room for improvement” in both areas.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Elise Delancey was quoted in an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report as saying that Ministries and Departments were not living up to their “responsibilities” to effectively manage staff.
The report, The State of the Civil Service in The Bahamas, by senior Antigua Barbuda politician, Joan Underwood (pictured), highlighted numerous weaknesses and deficiencies that made the Bahamian Public Service among the worst in the Caribbean, scoring only 19 out of 100 for Public Service development and quality.
“The Permanent Secretary stated unequivocally that all line Ministries are failing in their personnel management responsibilities,” the report said.
“Some internal stakeholders suggested that this was due, at least in part, to the practice of promoting human resources practitioners to fill the role of Deputy Permanent Secretaries and other senior administrative roles.”
It said it was noteworthy that while this practice had supposedly depleted the HR talent pool, it had not been associated with a commensurate improvement in capacity within the ranks of Deputy Permanent Secretaries.
“In addition to the concerns expressed by the Ministry of Public Service, internal stakeholders suggested that the human resources units focused more on their administrative functions than on duties related to human resource development,” the report said.
Among widespread reactions to the report, Cabinet Secretary, Camille Johnson branded Deputy Permanent Secretaries — the second highest rank in the public sector — as “extraordinarily weak”.
She also said the Public Service was “overstaffed by as much as 40 per cent”, prompting politicians from all sides to rush to the defence of public sector workers by blaming each other for the deficiencies.
Nassau, 3 January 2019
