Fiji’s Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka said right-sizing and refocusing the Public Service was at the top of the Government’s agenda and if it was found that too many people were employed, some Ministries would have to be down-sized.
Mr Rabuka, who is also Minister for the Public Service, said each Ministry would need to do a stocktake on personnel before coming back with a report on whether manpower was sufficient to serve the objectives of the Ministry.
“We will be depending on updates from the relevant Ministries before making any decisions,” Mr Rabuka said.
“The Ministers are going to come back to say whether the establishment is sufficient to serve the objectives of the Ministry — if we are employing too many people, then we need to get rid of some.”
Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Civil Service, Parmesh Chand said discussions with stakeholders, including unions, would come into play.
He stressed that no decisions had been made at the moment.
“Once all that comes to the table, there will be a series of papers developed for consideration by the Cabinet, and then deliberations and decisions thereon will all be part of the program,” Mr Chand (pictured) said.
“We are cutting down on the wastage, trying to improve the systems and processes for better service delivery, while continuously working on improving the Civil Service for better management and governance.”
The World Bank’s Fiji Public Expenditure Report for 2023 says that managing the Public Service wage bill was becoming a massive challenge for Fiji.
The report also states that assessing pay and employment practices will be critical to making informed decisions on these issues and will also require better data collection mechanisms and systems.
Suva, 7 May 2023
