SearchArchives for July 2008
29 July, 2008CANADA
Union demands say as super funds fall
Canada’s largest Public Sector union has called for a seat on the Board of its members’ superannuation fund following the current Board posting a 0.3% loss in the past year compared with an 11.3% gain the year before.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) said it wanted to see employee representation in the management of its pension fund, as has been practised in other PS plans.
The PSAC call followed the Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s (PSP) 2008 annual report showing a loss of over $900 million, its first annual loss since 2003.
The loss was attributed to $920 million worth of writedowns in non-bank asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP), a short term investment vehicle, and on collateralised debt obligations (CDOs).
Residential mortgages bought and bundled together in large numbers like stocks in a mutual fund, a common component of CDOs and ABCP, were hit hard by the plunge in U.S. housing prices and the rise in mortgage defaults.
The PSP manages $38.9 billion of pension fund assets for Federal Public Servants, Canadian Forces members and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
It is run by a board made up of appointees selected by the Federal Cabinet.
PSAC had input on who was appointed to the pension board, but did not have any union members on the panel.
PSAC’s national pension officer, James Infantino, said this has led to a lack of disclosure from PSP and had kept pension members in the dark about the ABCP writedowns.
Mr Infantino said PSAC only learned about the fund’s loss after receiving a call from a journalist in Montreal who had noticed the report tabled in Parliament.
“We have a specific concern about these asset classes and the role PSP played in it,” he said. “There has to be further disclosure measures, to the members and pensioners and the public at large.”
Mr Infantino said the funds run by the PSP were for defined benefit-pensions, guaranteeing fixed payments to pensioners when they retired and the loss would be unlikely to affect benefits paid.
However, he said PSAC was concerned the fund faced ongoing exposure to the woes rocking the U.S. economy.
“This isn’t over. The financial situation in the US hasn’t gotten any better. It has gotten worse,” he said.
Mr infantino said although the pension plans were adequately funded, continued losses could jeopardise the health of the plans and could require more cash from the employer.
In their annual report, the pension managers pointed to the mortgage crisis in the US for triggering liquidity problems and a flight by investors to safer shores.
PSP Chief Executive Gordon Fyfe, expressed confidence in its current commercial paper holdings, saying “over 95% of the underlying assets supporting the ABCP we currently own are of high credit quality”.
29 July, 2008
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Revamped PS for Solomon Islands
A plan to improve the Public Service of the Solomon Islands has been unveiled as part of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Island, RAMSI.
A collaboration between the Solomon Islands and 15 contributing countries from the Pacific region (including Australia), RAMSI is laying the foundations for long-term stability, security and prosperity in the island State with improved law, justice and security and a more effective, accountable and democratic government.
A statement from RAMSI said the new “Public Service Improvement Program” would lead to better trained workers with the right tools to improve government services across Solomon Islands.
The SI Minister for Public Service, Milner Tozaka, said the Public Service Improvement Program was a major milestone in rebuilding the Public Service and building a better, well-governed Solomon Islands.
He said the program would commence immediately with the appointment of program leader, David Nudd, who was chosen by the selection committee of the Chairman of the Public Service Commission, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service and the Director of the RAMSI Machinery of Government Program.
Mr Tozaka said he was looking forward to working with a strong strategic thinker like Mr Nudd.
“Mr Nudd has spent many years leading teams in the United Kingdom to improve their Public Service and more recently in other developing countries where he has proven his ability to work in partnership with Ministers, Ministries, donors and the public to achieve benefits for the country,” Mr Tozaka said.
RAMSI Special Coordinator, Tim George, said the Public Service Improvement Program, with its focus on human resource management, was a step forward for a stronger, more effective government that worked for the people.
“Good people are at the heart of good governance,” Mr George said.
“This program will support the Public Service to recruit, train and manage the right people, into the right jobs so they can better advise government and deliver services to people.”
Mr George said to improve services, people needed to be given the skills to plan, organise and to work with other areas of the Public Service.
“This program aims to do this and will work with organisations like the Institute of Public Administration and Management, which RAMSI has supported, to train government workers of a modern Solomon Islands,” he said.
Mr Tozaka warned that helping the Public Service change the way it worked would not happen overnight.
“The RAMSI supported program will run for 10 years and will cost SBD$90 million or A$13.5 million over the first five years,” he said.
Mr Tozaka said the program will start with the Public Service Commission and Ministry of Public Service before moving onto selected Ministries and provincial administrations.
“The program will do some important things for improving the Public Service like streamline government recruitment, develop a code of conduct for all government workers and provide Public Servants with the tools to improve public services,” he said.
Mr. Tozaka said a regional meeting of Public Service Commissioners had inspired the idea of the Public Service Improvement Program.
“They looked at the need to strengthen the Public Service across many Pacific countries to deliver better government services,” he said.
Mr. George said RAMSI hoped to see an improved ability to provide government services across Solomon Islands over time.
“RAMSI is happy that government workers are about to receive the support they need to deliver better services and adapt to a changing world,” he said.
Mr Nudd said was looking forward to working with Solomon Islands Public Servants and to using his experience to help develop better public services.
29 July, 2008
THE COMMONWEALTH
Internet portal to connect Public Services
An online internet portal connecting senior Public Servants across 18 Commonwealth African countries is being set up by an Information Management professor in New Zealand, Pak Yoong.
Associate Professor Yoong has already set up a portal connecting senior administrators in nine Pacific nations and plans to launch an African equivalent for five more later this year.
Professor Yoong said the portal connecting the African nations would be the first of its kind for the region.
“The portal is designed to increase the sharing of resources and knowledge relating to the public sector reform programs among different professional communities in these countries,” he said.
He said he would be working with African Management Development Institutes (MDIs) to set up the first 'community' of Public Service training and development organisations.
The Africa Village Online project would be funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat and set up around five online communities, including one for the Heads of the Public Service organisations.
The Commonwealth Secretariat committed funds to the project after Professor Yoong presented his concept at the Commonwealth Heads of African Public Services Forum in Mozambique in July.
Professor Yoong is to travel to Namibia in September to address representatives of MDIs on the project.
He said the project would be modeled on the existing Pacific Village Online portal that linked over 160 senior Public Servants from nine countries in the Pacific region.
Professor Yoong established the Pacific Village Online project with funding from the New Zealand International Aid and Development Agency and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
“From an initial concept of a regional online community, the Pacific project has devolved to a national level, with facilitators from Vanuatu and Solomon Islands learning to set up their own local online communities,” he said.
“After training and supporting Vanuatu and the Solomons through this process, other countries within the Pacific region have asked for my help to set up similar communities.”
29 July, 2008
UNITED STATES
Campaign to set loan record straight
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has launched a cinema advertising campaign to educate consumers about their fair lending rights.
The public service announcement would run on 595 screens in 32 movie theatres in 28 cities, including 10 which were suffering some of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates.
The announcement, featuring actor Dennis Haysbert, formed a part of a national campaign to raise public awareness about lending discrimination and to make consumers aware of HUD resources about how to get out of a bad loan.
HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Kim Kendrick, said the campaign was a “tremendous opportunity to alert the public that housing discrimination can occur when a family seeks a home loan”.
“With greater awareness, we believe we can help homeowners get out of a bad situation,” Ms Kendrick said.
She said last year, HUD and its state and local fair housing partner Agencies received more than 10,000 complaints alleging some form of housing discrimination, including complaints that alleged discrimination related to home financing transactions.
An industry survey found 243,353 homes nationwide received at least one foreclosure-related filing in April, up 65 per cent from 147,708 for the same period last year and up four per cent since March.
The public service announcement is to also feature on television and radio, and will include a series of town hall forums across the nation.
The message is expected to reach about a million people.
HUD has encouraged people who thought they were a victim of housing discrimination to contact them.
29 July, 2008
KENYA
Restructure, pension changes for PS
The structure of the Kenyan Public Service is to be reviewed as one of a number of initiatives announced recently by the Kenyan Minister for the Public Service, Dalmas Otieno.
Mr Otieno said arrangements for PS pensions would also be overhauled with pension terms revised to ensure retirees could settle comfortably, and the restructure aimed at eliminating job stagnation and allow Public Servants to move up the PS ranks.
During a speech at a bonding seminar for Permanent Secretaries in the new coalition, the Minister also proposed a revolving fund for training from which public servants could borrow funds to build on their own skills and capacities.
Mr Oteino said the Permanent Secretaries were responsible for guiding policy makers into making right decisions by embracing cross sectional consultations and he urged them to form their own peer review mechanisms to appraise themselves on their performances.
The Seminar was aimed at addressing strategic and visionary leadership issues for officers charged with driving and implementing government policies and programs.
Some of the topics covered included leadership competencies and effectiveness; building the competitive advantage of the Kenya Public Service; public/private partnerships and engagement in the realisation of vision 2030 which aimed to make the country globally competitive and prosperous with a high quality of life for citizens by 2030.
The Seminar also covered video conferencing; risk and change management; resources; and building a culture that fostered innovation, a passion for service quality and performance accountability.
Mr Otieno said the seminar also promoted team building which would make the implementation of policies and programs more effective and thereby help make the Public Service one of the best-coordinated and competitive entities in Kenya.
The Permanent Secretaries identified strategies for leading and managing change more effectively while simultaneously appreciating the role of public/private partnership in achieving the set goals of vision 2030.
This was the second high profile seminar the Minister for the Public Service had organised for policy formulators following the formation of the Coalition Government.
The first one was held in May for Ministers, Assistant Ministers and Permanent Secretaries/Accounting Officers.
Civil Service Ambassador, Francis Muthaura, attended the seminar and urged the Permanent Secretaries to embrace cohesion and teamwork to achieve vision 2030.
29 July, 2008
SINGAPORE
Internship to attract school leavers
The Singapore Public Service has launched a new internship program aimed at attracting more outstanding students to the PS.
Minister for Defence, Teo Chee Hean, said the program would be up and running by the end of the year and targeted towards youths who had completed their first year in junior college.
The Minister said, like returning PSC undergraduate scholars, the internees would be attached to Government Ministries for a few weeks to get a taste of life in the Public Service.
During his announcement of the program at the annual PSC scholarship ceremony where 73 people received scholarship awards, Mr Teo said he hoped the exposure would help junior college students make more informed choices when applying for scholarships.
“Undergraduates who have been through such ministry attachments have told us that they enjoyed the stint and it opened their eyes to the real world of government,” he said.
'Some have joined the service as a result. This is a good development.”
Mr Teo said Singapore was fortunate to have young people prepared to take on the challenge of public service.
“There is something in public service that is larger than life,” he said.
“It attracts those who have a strong sense of service and a deep conviction to want to make a difference.”
During the ceremony, Mr Teo also announced another initiative to attract people to the Service, the Public Policy Challenge for local undergraduates.
He said the Public Service Division would organise the first Challenge for undergraduates from three local universities.
“The Challenge will raise awareness of policy development and implementation in the Public Service,” Mr Teo said.
He said participants in the Challenge would discuss policy issues and identify implementation challenges in a setting modeled on business case competitions.
“In short, they will get a chance to see that in making public policy, tradeoffs are inevitable and difficult decisions often have to be made,” he said.
“Winners of the Challenge will have the opportunity to engage public sector leaders in a dialogue session. Outstanding participants in the Challenge will also be invited to apply for the Management Associates Program, and the PSC Mid-Term or Masters Scholarships.”
29 July, 2008
CANADA
Workmates rally behind sacked employee
The sacking of a biologist from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for misconduct has led to a national campaign in his defence by the union that represented professionals in the Canadian Public Service.
Biologist Luc Pomerleau was fired for “gross misconduct” and breaching security after he forwarded a confidential Agency document to officials at the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada.
The document apparently laid out plans to reorganise food inspection, shifting more of the onus for food safety to the suppliers who manufactured and distributed food and other products.
Mr Pomerleau said the paper was insecurely posted on a website and could be accessed by any Agency employee.
The union, which represented information technologists, research scientists, engineers and other professionals, planned to distribute stickers saying “Stop the intimidation Reinstate Luc” to 1,500 stewards across the country, asking members to wear them.
Union vice-president, Gary Corbett, said the stickers would mark the beginning of a three month campaign.
Mr Corbett said the union had also planned to protest during non-working hours, to lobby MPs, format an online petition and would even think about commencing an advertising campaign.
“We want to keep the visibility up,” he said.
“We're sure this will come back on the floor of the House of Commons.”
Mr Corbett said union stewards felt intimidated as a result of Mr Pomerleau’s dismissal.
“We have these people who are afraid to speak up,” he said.
Union president, Michele Demers, said Mr Pomerleau had forwarded the document to seek advice as it looked as though the plan undermined the health and safety of Canadians.
Ms Demers said Mr Pomerleau had worked for the Public Service for 20 years and had an unblemished work record.
She said he was fired for simply doing his job.
Ms Demers said the Professional Institute considered his dismissal “an act of intimidation and bullying by this Government against unions and an attack on each and every union member”.
She said many members and stewards were reconsidering their participation on mandatory committees.
“Luc Pomerleau was attacked for doing his job,” she said.
“He was fired for sending his union a document that was available to anyone having access to the CFIA network, including 6,000 CFIA employees.”
Ms Demers said it was clear the attack was a Government tactic in line with ongoing efforts to control the flow of information and promote its own agenda.
She said the union would investigate all labour relations and legal avenues , and had filed several grievances.
“We want him to get his job back. We want him reinstated,” Mr Corbett said. “We want justice. We don't want to be intimidated in the workplace.”
A media relations officer for the CFIA, Alain Charette, said the agency could not comment, except to say that “due process” was being followed.
29 July, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA
Employee concern at coercion
A dispute between the South African Department of Public Service and Administration and public sector unions has escalated with unionists warning the Department to stop intimidating their employees.
The unions claimed the Department had been trying to have its members withdraw their signatures from a petition alleging the Minister for DPSA , Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, was racist.
Staff members have accused Ms Fraser-Moleketi of entrenching whites, Indians and coloureds in more senior and strategic positions before she leaves office after the election next year.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the claims were defamatory and that workers were being duped.
The National Health, Education and Allied Workers' Union has accused her Department of using scare tactics and of driving a wedge between aggrieved workers.
DisplayAds('SquarLAV',12,594); Union members employed at the Department's head office met union president Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya to discuss moves by senior managers that called upon individual employees to distance themselves from the petition.
The Union said it condemned the conduct of the Department of Public Service and Administration.
It said the Department could not call members to individual meetings, give them letters spreading inaccurate information, threaten employees or attempt to intimidate them into taking their signatures off the petition.
29 July, 2008
SIERRA LEONE
New Commissioner for SL Public Service
The West African nation of Sierra Leone has a new Public Service Commissioner.
Former head of the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), Valentine Collier has been selected from 24 presidential nominees approved by the House of Parliament to head the Public Service Commission.
Mr Collier has served as chairman or board member of a number of Government Departments and Agencies, yet his new appointment is to be his first public job since he was replaced as Commissioner of the ACC almost three years ago.
He has 35 years of Public Service experience and headed the Public Service for eight years before being appointed to the ACC.
Mr Collier told the Committee on Appointments and the Public Service that when he left the Public Service, he knew there were “problems of manpower” and human resource, structures and training for Public Servants.
He has promised to make a difference to the Service in his new appointment.
Among other approved nominees was former Deputy Registrar of the University of Sierra Leone and Registrar of Fourah Bay College, Sorie Dumbauya, who was approved as Board Chairman of the Sierra Leone Ports Authority.
Civil society activist, Charlie Hughes was approved as Chairman of the Relics and Monuments Commission and Dr Issa Fofanah, a lecturer at Njala University College was appointed Chairman of the National Tourist Board.
Davidson Kuyateh, former Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union was approved as Board member of the National Commission for Privatisation.
Mohamed Sampha Bangura and Sam Franklyn were approved as Board members of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration and Justice Salamatu Koroma approved as a Supreme Court Judge.
Deputy Majority Leader, Sheku Dumbuya, proposed the motion saying all nominees had been screened, with their educational background and proven abilities assessed before presenting them to the House.
The Deputy Majority leader expressed confidence in the selection, and wished all new appointees well in their new responsibilities.
29 July, 2008
SINGAPORE
PSC Chairman retires
The Chairman of Singapore’s Public Service Commission, Andrew Chew Guan Khuan is to retire on 1 August.
Dr Chew, 78, was appointed a PSC member in 1997 and became chairman in August 1998. He will be replaced by for High Commissioner to Australia, Eddie Teo Chan Seng, 61, the Deputy Chairman of the PSC.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that over the past decade, Dr Chew had played a key role in recruiting, training and maintaining talented workers into the Public Service and had been instrumental in the selection of PSC scholars and the appointment and promotion of key Public Service leaders.
It said under Dr Chew's leadership the Commission had introduced many initiatives to make the Public Service a more attractive career option for talented Singaporeans.
“The PSC scholarship program, the primary means for attracting talent into the Civil Service was strengthened,” the statement said.
Prior to his appointment as PSC chairman, Dr Chew served in the Singapore public service for 42 years in various positions including Head of Civil Service, Permanent Secretary for Health, Permanent Secretary for Finance and Permanent Secretary for the Prime Minister's Office.
In 1975 he was awarded a gold Public Administration Medal for significant contributions to the Service and in 1994 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.
Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, expressed deep appreciation for Dr Chew's loyal service.
“Your contributions to Singapore have been singularly outstanding,” the Prime Minister said.
“We have a high-quality Singapore Public Service today which is admired across the world, because of the exacting standards placed on identifying, selecting and developing talent.”
Mr Lee said Dr Chew exemplified the best traditions of the PS and had “done Singapore proud”.
“I wish to thank you personally for the 52 years you have tirelessly put into public service and in particular your work as chairman of the Public Service Commission over the last 10 years.”
Dr Chew’s replacement, Mr Teo, was appointed a member and deputy Chairman of the PSC from 17 March this year.
Mr Teo has extensive experience in public administration, starting his career in the Security and Intelligence Division, Ministry of Defence in 1970.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and obtained a Master of Science in International Relations from the University of London.
He retired from the Administrative Service in 2005 after 35 years of service.
22 July, 2008
FIJI
PS accused of being lazy
The Fijian Public Service was lazy and lacked a culture of prudence according to the President of the Fiji Labour Party, Jokapeci Koroi.
Ms Koroi said the PS was also non-responsive to the demands of the nation and needed a “shake-up”.
She agreed with the temporary Government’s idea that downsizing the civil service would be a good thing and reducing it was achievable.
“The Civil Service is bloated with incompetence,” Ms Koroi said.
“In line with reforms, the objective must ensure that more effort and resources are directed at the training aspect of our Service and Civil Servants are recruited on merit.”
Ms Koroi said the Service should be decreased to 70 per cent of its current level within three years.
She said Public Servants facing the sack should be retrained, provided with redundancy payments and helped with short-term business loans to allow them to find employment outside the Service.
“I note from the news that certain Civil Servants have been found to be divulging classified information to the media,” Ms Koroi said.
“Such practice must not be condoned and there must be strong deterrent measures in the Public Service Act with respect to adverse conduct of the Civil Service.”
Ms Koroi emphasised the need to have strict and clearly defined powers with respect to the employment of Civil Servants.
“All Civil Servants must be on three-yearly renewable contracts with the right of the State to terminate on grounds of indiscipline, theft, racial remarks and non-performance,” she said.
"To this end, an amendment of the Public Service Act is imperative.”
The General Secretary of the Fiji Public Service Association, Rajeshwar Singh, said he disagreed with Ms Koroi and that she and the FLP had “lost the plot”.
“She doesn't understand contracts and what she is talking about is totally unrelated to party issues,” Mr Singh said.
“We are flabbergasted with the comments by Mrs Koroi. The workers of this country have been betrayed by the party that was formed by workers and her comments are heart breaking.”
Mr Singh said morale in the Civil Service was at an all time low due to its treatment by the interim government.
22 July, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
PS strikes spread
Strikes by more than 600,000 UK Public Servants are being held across Britain in support of increases in pay.
Tens of thousands of Public Servants including coastguards, immigration officers and driving test examiners staged a series of strikes, coinciding with action by Council workers’ that paralysed services from education to rubbish collection.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said driving test examiners stopped work on Wednesday, while staff at the Valuation Office Agency took industrial action on Wednesday and Thursday.
Home Office and Land Registry workers stopped work for part of Friday, coastguards launched a 48-hour stoppage on Friday and employees at the Identity and Passport Service are to strike for 72 hours this week.
PCS General-Secretary, Mark Serwotka, said it would be a determined week of solidarity among PS workers.
He said Public Servants had been “facing a brutal attack on their living standards” by a government that was “desperate to cling to a widely discredited pay policy”.
“With food and energy prices rising even faster than inflation, millions of workers are struggling more than ever to pay their bills,” Mr Serwotka said.
He said the Government had lost credibility by attempting to portray low-paid Public Servants as the causes of inflation, rather than its victims.
Mr Serwotka said the union would continue to press for negotiations and was determined to fight alongside its PS colleagues if it was necessary.
The S strike came at a time Local council workers had launched one of the biggest strikes since 1962,
Head of the Public Service union, Unison, Dave Prentis, said the strike hit local authority services across England, Wales and Northern Ireland as the Government urged wage restraint to help contain prices.
A council worker on strike in Newcastle, 57 year old Kenny Bell, said the hike in fuel and food costs was hitting Public Servants hard.
“People are genuinely struggling,” Mr Bell said.
The Local Government Association (LGA) has kept wage settlements for its workers broadly in line with the official 2 per cent inflation target, offering most staff a 2.45 per cent increase.
The Unions said with inflation hitting 3.8 per cent in June, the offer translated into a pay cut.
Managing Director of the Local Government Employers, Jan Parkinson, said any further pay increases would result in higher council tax bills for households or reduced services.
“We have simply reached the limit of what is affordable,” Ms Parkinson said.
“In the current difficult economic climate we do not believe it would be fair to add to people's burden.”
22 July, 2008
CANADA
Weather bureau upgrade a blow-out
A $75 million (A$76.7 million) upgrade of Canada’s weather bureau has been an expensive flop according to the staff of the Meteorological Service of Canada.
A survey of 751 employees conducted in December and January found most were unhappy with the service’s upgrade which was announced in 2003 by then Environment Minister, David Anderson.
The survey by The Antima Group, found employees were “not happy with the impact of the transition process from either a personal or a professional perspective”.
As part of the overhaul, Environment Canada eliminated weather forecasting services in nine regional offices and consolidated them in five ‘storm prediction centres’ in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver.
The changes were expected to increase the meteorological service's capacity to serve citizens and clients, recruit and train new staff, monitor the environment and improve products and services.
But with the five-year transition period almost up and most of its funds already spent, the service’s employees remain unconvinced of the success of the project.
The report said staff were “much more inclined to say that (the) transition has had a negative impact on the achievement of these objectives than a positive impact”.
The survey found many employees were concerned about a wave of retirements that could create a skills shortage within the service, which has been providing weather information to Canadians for over 130 years.
It found some staff also cited outmoded equipment and technology as a growing problem.
Environment Canada spokesman, Gregory Jack, said the Service had improved its operations and forecasting since embarking on the modernisation program.
“The Department's view is that, overall, this has been a real success,” Mr Jack said.
The survey was the last of three commissioned by Environment Canada to assess staff opinion on the modernisation process.
The three surveys showed declining ratings on nearly every question in the second and third surveys.
The number of staff who said the service was a satisfying place to work dropped from over 80 per cent in 2005 to 61 per cent, while the proportion of staff who said no progress had been made on four of the five modernisation objectives rose between 2005 and 2007.
Vice-President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, Gary Corbett, said complaints were becoming increasingly common across the Public Service.
The survey results were considered accurate to within 3.6 percentage points, plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.
22 July, 2008
KENYA
Payrates probe uncovers PS poverty
An independent investigation into the pay rates of Kenya’s Public Service has found some staff were so poorly paid they had to walk to work and skip lunch because they couldn’t afford otherwise.
The Saturday Nation, a news information service, investigated the situation and found the worst hit were those in the lower cadres whose earnings had fallen behind the rising cost of living.
The Public Service announced pay increases for regular and Administration Police officers, prison warders and National Youth Service officers of Sh1,000 (A$15.50) on average for the lowest paid workers and up to Sh3,200 (A$50) for senior officers.
Police officers interviewed by the Saturday Nation said the increases were meaningless.
“These pay hikes are ridiculous. They are not commensurate with growing needs,” a Corporal said.
Secretary-General of the Union of Kenya Civil Servants, Tom Odege, said the low salaries and rising cost of living were reducing efficiency in the Public Service as most workers were unable to meet their basic needs and could not concentrate at work.
“An effective Public Service will remain a mirage if the salaries remain the same,” Mr Odege said.
The lowest paid Public Servants earned around Sh7,466 (A$116), which meant they could not even afford transport to work with many yet to receive the commuter allowance signed last year.
Secretary-General of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, Francis Atwoli, said workers could not perform their duties well if they could not afford a decent lifestyle.
Mr Atwoli said a family of six in a low-cost estate in Nairobi required a minimum of Sh50,000 (A$775) a month to make ends meet.
“This is supposed to be the minimum salary of any Government worker,” he said.
Mr Atwoli opposed performance contracts for Public Servants as workers could not be expected to deliver under the present wage scales.
“You cannot strangle workers to perform when you have underpaid them. These people are too hungry to effectively serve the Government,” he said.
Public Service Minister Dalmas Otieno, told Parliament the Government had set aside Sh3 billion (A$46.56 million) to implement the final phase of the PS pay rise.
Mr Otieno denied claims that morale was low, saying Public Servants’ salaries were now competitive.
Ikolomani Member of Parliament, Bonny Khalwale, said it was unthinkable that a senior Deputy Commissioner of Police earned only Sh49,000 (A$760) a month.
Government statistics showed managerial cadre earned between Sh40,000 (A$620) and Sh100,000 (A$1,550) while permanent secretaries and judges earned monthly salaries of up to Sh500,000 (A$7,750) in addition to numerous allowances.
According to a researcher, low salaries were the main cause for “temporary privatisation of the Government” where Public Servants resorted to corruption or engaged in business activities in contravention of Public Service rules and regulations.
A sociologist at the University of Nairobi, Dr Edward Ontita said some Public Servants were forced to use their positions to sell services to make ends meet.
22 July, 2008
RUSSIA
PS urged to become IT literate
Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has warned Public Servants to become computer literate or face being out of a job.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), since taking office in May, President Medvedev had worked to modernise Russia and was growing impatient that the level of skills in the Public Service was holding the country back.
“We don’t hire people who can’t read and write,” he said. “Computer literacy today is the same.”
President Medvedev said if the Government carried out more of its work online it could increase transparency and make corruption more difficult to hide.
But, he said despite years of talk about establishing an e-government, there had been no real progress toward putting documents, government purchase orders or research results online.
The news agency said President Medvedev blamed the lack of progress on poor computer skills.
“Civil Servants who don’t have elementary computer skills cannot work effectively,” President Medvedev said.
He said computer literacy should be a part of job evaluations and that the Government should increase internet access and consider compensating students for their internet use.
AFP said President Medvedev often made a point of “noting his use of the internet”, telling magazine Itogi, that he even watched the television news online.
According to AFP, internet penetration in Russia was among the lowest in Europe with only 12 per cent of people aged 15 and over online.
22 July, 2008
BARBADOS
Push for PS efficiency
The Barbados Public Service is facing a push to improve efficiency and productivity with a call made to introduce better staff training.
Deputy Principal Training Officer in the Training Administration Division, Harlow Broomes, said the current system was “an old colonial system” and that a more modern approach was needed.
Speaking at a two-day strategic planning workshop at Christ Church, Mr Broomes said the three agencies of the civil service, the Training Administration Division; the Personnel Administration Division; and the Civil Service Division needed to have a better relationships with each other.
“We need to come up with ways to better manage our training functions and look at the total development of the people in Government to see how the goals and objectives of the organisation can link with Governmental objectives,” Mr Broomes said.
The Minister of State for the Civil Service, Senator Arni Walters, said he was convinced discussions at the workshop would provide the “foundation to strengthen the management and development of the Public Service” and would create an organisation that was accountable, motivated and resilient.
Senator Walters said he hoped the discussions would move Barbados “forward within a 21st century environment to being a ‘First World’ developed country”.
22 July, 2008
IRELAND
New report a help to homebuyers
A new Environmental Report developed by Ordnance Survey Ireland will allow potential homebuyers, for the first time, to research the land on which their intended property is built.
The report combines data from OSI, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Geological Survey of Ireland, and includes information of historic flood plains, what the land had been used for in the past and land stability.
The new report means prospective homebuyers could tell if the site had previously been used for mining, or if any waste licences had been issued for the land. The information would also be accessible to planners, architects, engineers, and the legal profession, as well as current and potential owners.
According to OSI, reports could be generated for areas between 400 and 1,000 metres from a specific geo-point and would cost between €60 and €150 (A$100 to A$240).
The new service has been included on OSI’s new corporate website, which was recently unveiled at Farmleigh House by the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Seán Power.
Mr Power said the report was an example of what could be achieved when Agencies worked together to meet customer needs.
“This type of initiative endorses what the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) said recently in relation to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
Review of the Public Service, which recommends a greater sharing of information between public bodies,” he said.
“Working together in this way leads to an improvement of services which ultimately makes a very effective contribution to the infrastructural base of business in the economy.”
Mr Power said the new site linked in to the OSI’s Smartmaps service, which allowed users to browse the various maps of Ireland before buying them.
22 July, 2008
SRI LANKA
Payrise to meet cost of living
Sri Lankan Public Servants are in for a pay rise with the Government announcing that the ‘Cost of Living' allowance (CoL) for public sector employees, including provincial Public Services and the Armed Forces, had been revised and enhanced.
Media and Information Minister and Cabinet Spokesperson, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said during discussions with Trade Union Representatives, Cabinet Respresentatives and officials from Finance and Planning, Public Administration and Home Affairs in June, it had been agreed in increase the CoL by LKR 1,000 (A$9.50) from 1 July for employees with a monthly salary of less than LKR 22,935 (A$220).
The increase meant the revised CoL allowance for those employees would rise from LKR 2,500 (A$24) to LKR 3,500 (A$33).
Employees earning LKR 22,935 or above would be payed LKR 2,875 (A$27).
Mr Yapa said daily paid employees would be paid a daily CoL allowance of LKR116.66 (A$1.10) from July 01, 2008.
He said employees of corporations, Statutory Boards and fully owned Government companies which did not pay a variable CoL would be paid a CoL along with all other employees.
22 July, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Union call to revisit outsourcing
The United Kingdom’s Trades Union Congress has issued a pamphlet calling for new and better ways of introducing market mechanisms into the UK Public Service.
According to the pamphlet, successive attempts to introduce market mechanisms into the Public Service by Labour and Conservative Governments had failed to deliver better value and had often made the problems they claimed to solve, worse.
The TUC said the Government was spending £44 billion (A$90 billion) on public service delivery outside the PS each year and that it was time for a new 'public value' alternative.
The pamphlet was issued as the second in a series designed to inject a trade union perspective into debate about public policy issues and says the PS should not go back to “top-down ways of running public services” that ignored the needs of users.
Titled Rethinking Public Service reform - the public value alternative, the pamphlet said a new ‘public value’ alternative would require managers, users and providers to work together to shape the future of public services.
It said the PS needed to be based on the wider needs of society, the satisfaction of service users and the views of local communities without neglecting value for money.
Midlands TUC Regional Secretary, Roger McKenzie, said politicians had a “kneejerk” preference for private sector solutions, and seemed to have lost faith in the ability of Public Servants to deliver quality public services.
“Yet this ideology and prejudice is not based on any evidence of what works,” Mr McKenzie said.
He said voters still backed public sector values, and could see the professionalism and commitment of Public Servants was as important as sound management and value for money.
“They don't want to be customers at the Public Service supermarket,” he said.
Mr McKenzie said it was time for Ministers to end their “market obsession” and to start consulting with communities and staff to see what they wanted.
“This is not to say that public services do not need to change or modernise, or that we should not be looking for value for money,” he said.
“This is why we are spelling out exciting new ideas rooted in what works and what people want and need for a new approach to planning the future of public service.”
The pamphlet analysed successive market initiatives by different Governments and showed the original justification for contracting out was it would deliver cash savings.
However, the pamphlet pointed out that this outsourcing proved to be at the expense of service quality (e.g. the quality of school meals).
The pamphlet said while the private sector profited when contracts went well, the Public Service had to pick up the bill when they went wrong.
The pamphlet said breaking the PS up into contracts for the private sector often had unintended consequences, as exemplified in the creation of Independent Treatment Centres which reduced opportunities for junior doctors to develop skills and left NHS hospitals with difficult, expensive cases and unused capacity.
It said the delivery of lower quality services from the private sector had not been overcome as they often relied on minimum wage jobs with high turnover and little training.
The pamphlet said future PS developments should aim to maximise the value from public services, rather than simply minimising costs.
22 July, 2008
UNITED STATES
Investigators find Defence projects stalled
Official investigations into United States Defence strategies have found them to be poorly coordinated and missing basic goals and policies.
Reports to Congress have alleged that efforts to defend the nation against a smuggled nuclear bomb or a biological outbreak or attack were missing their targets and incomplete despite costing billions of dollars.
Reports by the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office showed that $2.8 billion (A$2.87 billion) was budgeted for nuclear detection in 2007, but strategic plans to plug gaps and move beyond initial goals such as placing radiation detectors at domestic and overseas ports were lacking.
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee was presented with the reports, along with finding that a five-year-old program to detect the airborne release of biological warfare agents such as anthrax, plague and smallpox in more than 30 major US cities still lacked essentials to help medical officials respond to an alert.
State and local public health laboratory directors have been critical of the BioWatch program, saying it was underfunded, improperly managed and had no clear benefits, despite $400 million (A$411 million) in federal spending.
Michigan state health official and President of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, Frances Downes, said BioWatch had been described to him as a “parasite to the public health laboratory” that took up “valuable public health laboratory space”.
“I am hard-pressed to disagree,” Mr Downes said.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman, Russ Knocke, said BioWatch guidelines were provided for jurisdictions to create their own operating rules and that the program had paid for its own staff, equipment and materials.
Mr Knocke said a separate Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found Energy Department officials had praised the DHS for helping shift their focus to detecting nuclear materials overseas away from ports providing “a more balanced defense of our homeland”.
“These criticisms simply don't bear truth,” he said.
Senate and House hearings have been used by Democrats to air dissatisfaction with domestic response to the threat from weapons of mass destruction.
Critics of the President Bush’s actions say despite progress, his administration had not fulfilled its rhetoric.
According to the research and audit arms of Congress, a DHS agency established in 2005 to develop a global nuclear detection structure had identified gaps in its initial strategy focused on cargo screening at land and sea ports.
GAO official, David Maurer, said the DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) began pilot efforts to address the holes but had not “developed an overarching strategic plan to guide its transition" to a more comprehensive strategy.
Mr Maurer’s testimony was released by the Senate panel chaired by Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Senator Lieberman said the DNDO's system was incomplete, may have gaps or redundancies, and had no clear measure for success.
“DHS must develop a reliable means to assure the American people that major investments in this architecture will in fact make us measurably safer against catastrophic nuclear terrorism,” he said.
The House panel said the new National Biosurveillance Integration Center would not be fully operational by September, a deadline set by Congress last year.
15 July, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA
Corruption claims 1000 in SA PS
Over 1,000 South African Public Servants were charged with financial mismanagement in the 2006/2007 financial year.
This was an increase of 35 per cent on the 771 cases of the previous year and has prompted the Government to claim it was cracking down on official corruption.
The Department for Public Service and Administration has reported that it spent R20 million (A$2.7 million) on preventing, detecting, investigating, prosecuting and monitoring corruption by law enforcement and other public officials.
Minister of the Department, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said the Government was also combatting corruption on other fronts and released a report on managing conflicts of interest in the Public Service.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the new policy was aimed at addressing conflicts such as the declaration of interests, offering and accepting gifts and remunerated work outside the PS and post PS employment.
She said, of the 1,042 cases of financial misconduct reported, 370 occurred in national departments and 672 at a provincial level.
She said municipalities had previously been excluded from scrutiny but under the new ‘One Public Service’ drive, municipal officers would fall under the same level of investigation as other Public Servants.
Almost 60 per cent of reported cases involved fraud and 13 per cent involved theft.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said financial mismanagement had occurred at all levels of seniority, with males committing 35 per cent and women committing 55 per cent of offences. No gender information was available for the balance of 10 per cent.
The Public Service Commission said financial mismanagement cost the Service R130.6 million (A$17.6 million) last year.
It said the biggest cases were in the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Roads and Public Transport and that out of the total amount of money lost last year, only R20.8 million (A$2.8 million) was recovered
The money that was recovered made up only 16 per cent of the cost of the mismanagement, but could be under-reported due to the completion of recovery often extending beyond the reporting period.
Of the cases opened in 2006-07, 83 per cent were found guilty - the highest proportion of the past five years.
The main sanction was final written warnings to 36 per cent of the guilty parties with just 18 per cent of Public Servants found guilty of financial mismanagement being fired.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said criminal proceedings were instituted against 25 per cent of employees involved in the misconduct.
15 July, 2008
UNITED STATES
Bid to set up PS Academy
Moves to create a Public Service Academy in the United States are gaining ground with students from across the country descending on Washington to lobby representatives.
Around 100 students have rallied outside Congress in support of plans to create an academy that offered college-bound students free education in exchange for five years of public service.
Author of the proposal, Christopher Asch, said the academy would resemble military academies with a public service focus and that students would begin at the ground level as teachers, police officers or low-level administrators.
The goal of the academy would be to boost the pool of qualified candidates for teaching, nursing, law enforcement and Federal Government careers, Mr Asch said.
Public service re-emerged in public discussion after Democratic and Republican presidential nominees raised the issue as a part of their campaigns.
Democrat Presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, said people who loved America must do their part to change it.
“If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger,” Senator Obama said.
He called for more nurses, teachers, soldiers and Peace Corps and AmeriCorps volunteers.
Republican Senator John McCain, said America “made a mistake” after the 11 September terrorist attacks, saying the incident should have been used to “call Americans to serve”.
Twenty-one year old student at James Madison University, Beth Camphouse helped organise the students to call upon Congress Members and attend a conference at George Washington University.
Ms Camphouse said she believed her generation was being called to service in a “different way”.
“People look at a place like West Point and say, 'Wow, people who go here have really made a commitment.'
“This academy would do the same thing,” she said.
Mr Asch said the attention currently being given to public service might work against the legislation, which has sat for months in the House Education and Labor subcommittee.
“It's difficult for a Bill like this to get oxygen during an election year,” Mr Asch said.
His proposal called for 5,100 top students from across America and around the world as well as a freshman class of 1,300.
Under the proposal, students would need a congressional nomination - the same process used by military academies - and would have to wear uniforms.
Supporters said they wanted the school to be located in the Capital and that operations would cost about $205 million a year.
The Bill has received support from, among others, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Benjamin Cardin, Virginia Delegate M Kirkland Cox and Catholic Charities USA.
Retired Lieutenant General David Palmer, a political appointee and former West Point President, said the academy would allow America to “train leaders” who would choose public service as a profession.
Former President of George Washington University, Steve Trachtenberg, criticised the proposal, saying universities already had programs to attract young people to the public sector.
“This is an answer in search of a problem,” Mr Trachtenberg said.
15 July, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Book backs Government advertising
A new book published by the United Kingdom’s Central Office of Information showed how Government advertising could initiate positive behaviour, save lives and improve the health of the nation.
The book, How Public Service Advertising Works was produced by the COI in association with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and explored the effectiveness of 25 years of Public Sector advertising and marketing campaigns in the UK.
Deputy Chief Executive of the COI, Peter Buchanan, said the book was a unique source of reference for Public Sector marketers, Agencies, academics and students.
“This text provides 25 years of learning that will inform the next 25 years,” Mr Buchanan said.
The book follows the idea that there is no single Public Service methodology, but rather that a variety of models are required to meet the breadth of policy and social issues that need marketing support.
The publication, edited by Judie Lannon, former planning director for JWT Europe, contains a collection of papers from academics and high-profile players in the advertising industry and the media.
It has been divided into six parts and examines the aim of Public Service campaigns, how target audiences are identified and engaged, analyses the creative process and looks at the psychology of it all.
How Public Service Advertising Works includes evidence proving Public Sector advertising was an efficient form of investment, findings that point to tangible returns on advertising spending, to tens of thousands of lives saved, and to substantial savings for the public purse.
Copies of the book are available from the World Advertising Research Centre for around A$80 (including postage), visit http://store.warc.com
15 July, 2008
JAMAICA
PS Competition launched
Jamaica’s Minister of State, Daryl Vaz, has urged Public Servants to adopt a “can do” attitude towards service delivery at the launch of the fourth biennial Public Sector Customer Service Competition.
Mr Vaz said negative expressions and phases such as “it cannot be done”, “we cannot do it” and “I don’t know when” should be used sparingly when serving the public to avoid promoting an unwillingness to serve customers.
“As Minister in charge of the customer service I yearn for the day, and the sooner the better, when the first words uttered by Public Servants including Ministers of Government, will be to inform customers of how, when and where to obtain quality service in record time,” he said.
Mr Vaz said the Customer Service Competition was open to all Ministries and Agencies of Government that met the criteria for entry.
He said only Agencies with a Citizen’s Charter would be considered for the Best Customer Service Agency award which included a $300,000 (A$4,300) cash award and the Prime Minister’s Trophy.
Mr Vaz said other categories included the Civil Service Association Trophy and the Cabinet Secretary’s Award for the most creative and innovative Agency.
He said awards would be presented to the best Agency within its service category such as the 'Best Post Office', as well as the award for the Best Customer Service Officer.
Mr Vaz said the competition was aimed at realising the vision and strategy of Public Service modernisation to organise the PS around the needs of the customers and to be directly accountable through a standardised code of service delivery.
He said service needed to be accessible, convenient, user friendly, integrated and cost effective with the assurance of review when necessary.
Mr Vaz said the Public Service modernisation and citizen's charter programs were developed to strengthen service and involved the development of minimum standards the public should expect from the Government.
He said quality service should be consistent throughout the PS and workers should strive to deliver the highest quality of service possible.
A panel of judges is to visit competing Agencies and conduct customer service surveys to choose the winners. Judging is expected to take nine months with winners being announced in March 2009.
15 July, 2008
CALIFORNIA
Strikes for higher pay
Up to 8,500 Public Servants employed at the University of California’s 10 campuses and five medical campuses have launched a five-day strike in support of a claim for higher pay.
UC officials went to court to stop the strike after complaining to the Public Employment Relations Board that the union was not bargaining in good faith and was encouraging strike action that would endanger public safety.
The Board, which oversaw Public Sector collective bargaining, issued a formal charge. A temporary restraining order to halt any strike action could be issued.
According to the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the service workers, who had duties ranging from cleaning dorm rooms to serving hospital meals, had been negotiating for more pay for over a year.
UC licensed Vocational Nurse and President of AFSMCE, Lakesha Harrison, said UC executives didn’t pay service workers enough to survive and expected taxpayers to “pick up the tab in the form of public assistance”.
The Union said wages for the service workers were as low as $10 per hour and that many workers had second jobs to help make ends meet as food and petrol prices rose.
The union said the strike would include workers from medical and university facilities throughout California, including UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UCSF Medical Center.
Executive Director of Labour Relations at UC, Howard Pripas, said both sides were close to an agreement before AFSCME cut off talks.
“These actions come after the union’s rejection of numerous UC proposals, the latest of which include minimum wage increases of 26 per cent over the next five years for patient care employees, and increases in minimum hourly rates for service employees from $10.28 to $11.50 or $12.00 depending on location,” Mr Pripas said.
“UC has also offered to transition these employees to a step-based salary structure, which was proposed by the union, and to continue to provide them the same high quality health and pension benefits offered to all UC employees, at the same cost as other employees.”
Mr Pripas said the proposals were fair and responded to many of AFSCME's concerns. He said the university regretted having to take legal action, but that it had an obligation to protect its patients, students, and the communities that relied on it.
University officials noted that the employment relations board in May backed an injunction to halt an AFSCME strike by patient-care workers.
AFSCME said some of the patient-care workers it represented might honour the service workers’ picket line in solidarity.
15 July, 2008
GUERNSEY
PS pay talks stall
Talks over pay increases for the States of Guernsey Public Service have stalled with the Public Sector Remuneration Committee telling the PS Union, ‘Unite’, that its hands were tied by Government budgetary decisions.
The Industrial Disputes Office has been called in to mediate the discussions following the failure of the two parties to come to an agreement.
Unite’s Regional Industrial Organiser, Ron Le Cras, questioned whether the PSRC could legitimately negotiate with the union due to the States’ decision to curb spending.
“Our concern at the moment is, is the PSRC able to agree a proper pay rise or not?” Mr Le Cras said.
“All the people who we deal with in the private sector, and any other companies I know, are all paying Retail Prices Index (RPI) or above rises to their staff but the States of Guernsey is saying it is not able to give us an RPI pay increase.”
Mr Le Cras said Public Service employees felt they were being made to pay for “zero to ten twice”.
Workers rejected a 3 per cent pay offer in January, and had asked for last September’s RPI figure of 4.9 per cent plus a further 3 per cent.
15 July, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Outsourcing to volunteers sparks row
A Parliamentary Committee in the United Kingdom has warned the Government that there is no firm evidence to support the outsourcing of public services to voluntary organisations.
The cross-party House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee said a report analysing third sector delivery of public services found the only evidence available to corroborate the Government’s view that the voluntary sector was better placed to deliver public services than the public or private sector was “speculative or anecdotal”.
The review, led by economist DeAnne Julius, found there were “clear benefits” to taxpayers in opening up public services to competition as competitive tendering had led to cost savings of 10 to 30 per cent and had often improved service quality.
Dr Julius made a number of recommendations calling on the Government to demonstrate its long-term commitment to opening up public services to competition.
She said despite the success of the Public Service industry, her report found some “worrying trends” due to the slowing growth rate and the increasing costs of bidding for contracts.
The Parliamentary Committee’s MPs said there needed to be a strong evidence base developed before a mass transfer of public services was considered.
Chief Executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (Acevo), Stephen Bubb said there was already “good evidence from key public services, such as employment support, that the third sector delivers outstanding results to service users”.
The report and its recommendations have been rejected by trade unions however who say the Government should invest money in Public Sector provision rather than in private firms.
General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, Mark Serwotka, said the report summed up everything the Government had got wrong.
Mr Serwotka said the Government had its priorities wrong and was “obsessed” with opening up public services to the market.
The Parliamentary Committee did not entirely reject an increased role of the third sector in delivering public services, but called for “a vigorous mixed economy of provision” where all prospective service providers were judged on their merits and their ability to improve outcomes.
A public service delivery action plan for reducing barriers to the voluntary sector’s delivery of public services was published by the Cabinet Office in December 2006.
The new report was available at www.publications.parliament.uk
15 July, 2008
JAMAICA
Crackdown on power grabs
The Government of Jamaica has stepped up its campaign against residents and companies stealing electricity from the publicly-owned energy supplier, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS).
Head of corporate communications at the JPS, Winsome Callum, said the company was now spending $35.5 billion (A$510 million) a year to contain electricity theft.
Ms Callum said greater effort was being placed on identifying more “sophisticated” thieves.
“We do pursue cases against anybody,” she said.
However she said the JPS always tried to collect from offenders before pursuing legal action as it was in the company’s best interest.
“When there is an arrest and somebody is charged, that person will go to Court and is fined,” she said. “That fine goes to the court and not the JPS.”
Ms Callum said electricity theft had reduced slightly for the first time in a decade in 2007.
She said at the end of 2007 a one per cent drop had been recorded, breaking the two per cent increase in electricity theft in the two previous years.
She said the JPS was seeking to become more efficient by retiring some of its generating units, the first set of which are due to be retired in 2015.
She said the old generating units were thought to be a major cause of power outages.
Ms Callum said the company was focusing on cutting the amount of electricity being lost in producing energy, and had already seen a drop from 10 to seven per cent.
She said the JPS would try to reduce the figure further to five per cent.
15 July, 2008
MALDIVES
PS leadership seminar held
A seminar on Leadership in the Public Service has been conducted for the Maldives Public Service.
It was organised jointly by the Public Service Division of the President’s Office and the Public Service Training Institute with the assistance of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation.
The two-day seminar highlighted the importance of effective leadership for public sector organisations in a multi-party political environment.
It aimed to provide senior executives with the necessary leadership skills and qualities to face challenges arising from the current reform process being experienced by the country.
The seminar was inaugurated by the Minister of Atolls Development, Ahmed Thasmeen Ali who, in his inaugural address highlighted the responsibilities behind the leadership of Public Sector organisations.
He said the people who participated in the seminar were political leaders or civil service leaders who occupied key positions in Public Sector organisations.
Mr Thasmeen said these leaders needed to have a strong bond in order to work towards their shared national development objectives.
Deputy Minister at the President’s Office, who headed the Public Service division, Dr Isaam Mohamed, delivered the welcoming remarks at the opening ceremony.
15 July, 2008
NIGERIA
World bank funds capacity building
The World Bank has allocated interest-free funding for a State Governance and Capacity Building Project in Nigeria.
The Cross River, Bauchi and Kaduna State Governments were chosen as pilot States to benefit from the $18.1 million project.
The State Governance and Capacity Building Project began in 2005 and aimed to support participating States as they strengthened and improved their public and financial management of human resource management systems.
The project provided technical assistance to a number of agencies.
According to a World Bank statement, the Bank had partnered with the Cross River State Government to help make progress towards improving governance and strengthening the capacity of public sector institutions.
The World Bank said this was critical for improving service delivery, sustaining growth and reducing poverty.
It said the Sate would receive $6 million towards the project.
The Cross River project was expected to support modernisation and capacity building to public financial management, especially in accounting and expenditure control, budget preparation, external audit, fiscal responsibility and public procurement.
“Other areas of support include human resource management and training enhancement, and enhancement of judicial service delivery through the introduction of model fast track courts,” the statement said.
It said the objective of the project was to strengthen capacity for multi-fiscal planning, expenditure policy and budgeting, timely auditing and reporting, effective and transparent public procurement, improved management of personnel and payroll controls and enhanced delivery of judicial services and civil service training.
The implementing agencies included the Office of the Accountant General, Office of the Auditor General, the Budget Office of the Head of Service, the Judiciary, Management Development Institute, Due Process Office and the State Planning Commission.
The project structure showed civil servants and institutions would benefit from study tours, training and a more well-equipped work environment, while members of the public would benefit from improved service delivery, transparency and accountability in the use of resources by civil servants.
World Bank support was to complement the actions of the State Government and other development partners
George Larbi, Team Leader, said the success of the project in Cross River and other pilot states would be critical in scaling up support to other States and Local Governments in Nigeria.
“It is important that all key stakeholders continue to work together to ensure the successful implementation of the project in Cross River and other pilot States,” Mr Larbi said.
“This will enable the World Bank to extend similar support to other states in the Federation.”
8 July, 2008
MALAYSIA
Malaysian survey uncovers PS corruption
Only 16.7 per cent of the staff of Malaysia’s Public Service would not use their position for personal gain or corruption according to a new survey commissioned by the country’s Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
As part of the lead-up to a proposed ‘National Integrity Plan’ the survey was aimed at assessing integrity in the local context and involved 14,967 respondents nationwide.
Its findings were reported in the National Integrity Perception Index (NIPI) Report 2007 launched by the Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.
The President of the Malaysian Integrity Institute (IIM), Datuk Dr Mohd Tap Salleh said the survey’s findings were important as they would assist the Government in re-assessing existing policies and drafting new ones.
He said the survey respondents included households (67 per cent), Public Servants (26.9 per cent) and senior officers in the private sector (6.1 per cent).
According to Dr Salleh 53.9 per cent of all respondents said corruption was highly practised in Malaysia but 58.2 per cent said corruption prevention measures were effective.
The data found survey participants from local councils showed a lower level of understanding of corruption than participants from Federal Departments and Agencies.
According to the survey, 39.5 per cent of Local Council officers and 29.3 per cent of Federal officers thought it was okay to use office funds for their own benefit.
The report found 29 per cent of respondents did not think giving contracts to family members was corrupt, and 36.5 per cent thought there was nothing wrong with helping family members gain posts in Government Departments.
Participants rated six aspects of governance on a scale of one to 10.
The quality of public service delivery rated the lowest at 6.6, followed by corruption (6.76), ethics and social responsibility (6.9), courtesy (7.07) and family institution and community perceptions (7.38).
Perceptions of the quality of life and well-being fared the highest at 7.41.
Overall, participants gave the nation a score of 6.97 out of a possible 10.
“It is expected public perception will continue to improve, based on the Government’s development policy, greater transparency and the announcement of an independent Anti-Corruption Agency,” Dr Salleh said.
Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan said the Public Service should start working harder to improve.
He said the public’s views on poor public service were due to the lack of basic facilities at selected service counters and local authorities.
The survey was the culmination of four years of work since the inception of the National Inquiry Plan by the Prime Minister in 2004.
Mr Hassan said unlike Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the NIPI took the experiences and perceptions of Malaysians from all walks of life and excluded foreigners.
“For the year 2007, TI gave Malaysia 5.10 points in the CPI for the year 2007 but in the NIPI, we fared better with 6.97 points,” he said.
Dr Salleh said a national survey would be conducted annually, with the one for 2008 due to commence this month.
The report described its findings regarding corruption as “worrying”.
It was carried out with assistance from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) on a budget of about $A300,000.
8 July, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA
Pre-election resignations denied
Reports that senior South African Public Servants were resigning their positions ahead of national elections have been dismissed by the Minister for Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the 2009 election was not expected to cause any instability in the SA Public Service.
“We are not seeing this flight that is being spoken about,” she said. “A general election is a necessary part of the political life of every sound democracy.”
Ms Fraser-Moleketi’s assurances came after the Opposition Leader of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, warned against the “no-holds barred” drive by supporters to install African National Congress president Jacob Zuma in the presidency.
Ms Zille said in the process, constitutionally enshrined institutions and values such as the judiciary had become targets of attack.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said there was a need for an independent public administration that remained stable during periods of political transition.
“The Public Service should never be destabilised by general elections, or consider themselves destabilised, or get involved in actions that many suggest they are because of a general election,” she said.
“If there is an institution that should and must be stable during a general election and transition, it is the Public Service.”
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said unlike Ministerial advisers, Directors-General served on contract and were not political appointments.
She said politicians came and went, and Government officials should not be compared to them as most were career Public Servants.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said there were five Director-General positions vacant, four at national level and one at a provincial level and despite the upcoming elections, contracts had been renewed.
She said nationally, 27 of the 131 Deputy Director-General posts were vacant, while six national and four provincial chief financial officer posts were unfilled.
The vacancy rate of municipal managers was between 12 and 14 per cent.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said institutional framework, laws and capacity were in place in the fight against corruption.
“I am quite confident that we have sound legislation and good frameworks within the Public Service,” she said.
“I would say we are well on our way to deal with the combating of corruption in a comprehensive and co-ordinated manner.”
8 July, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Protest called against low pay offer
A two-day public sector strike has been called in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for mid-July in protest against a low pay offer for Local Government employees.
The strike has been called by the members of UNISON, Britain and Europe’s biggest public sector union, and is to protest against a 2.45 per cent pay offer from their employers.
According to UNISON, the Consumer Price Index showed inflation was running at 3.3 per cent in the UK which did not include housing costs. The Retail Price Index, which did include housing put inflation at 4.3 per cent.
UNISON’s General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said under both calculations, the pay offer would effectively lead to a pay cut.
“We have made plain to the employers that our members cannot take another below-inflation hit this year,” Mr Prentis said.
“Spiralling food, housing and energy prices are eating into their low incomes and forcing them to make stark choices about paying bills.”
The action was expected to affect 600,000 workers including social workers, librarians, school meals workers, garbage collectors, surveyors and teaching assistants, and would be the first nationwide strike in the sector for almost two and a half years.
UNISON would be using its website and other communication tools to build support for the strike action and has urged unions from other nations to give their support by leaving a message of solidarity.
Further information could be found from www.unison.org.uk
8 July, 2008
IRELAND
PS redundancies to achieve savings
The Irish Cabinet is considering ordering redundancies across the Irish Public Service in its efforts to cut spending by €1 billion a year.
The Government is thinking of imposing a freeze on recruitment to achieve a 3 per cent drop in PS staff numbers over 18 months and has a draft redundancy program up its sleeve to produce even greater cuts.
A ban on recruiting all-but frontline PS workers such as nurses, teachers and police forms the main thrust of the spending cuts but the Government was undecided on whether to go further with PS-wide redundancy packages.
Cabinet was already voting on a cutbacks package that would include merging or downsizing a number of Agencies as well as cutting spending on advertising, public relations and other office administration costs.
A job redundancy plan for Health Service administrators and middle managers was expected to cut 1000 positions and Departments would be forced to find savings in telephone and IT services by returning to centralised purchasing arrangements across the PS.
Defence Force recruitment is to be halved and a PS pay freeze is gaining popularity with the private sector.
Many commentators believe that even the harsher cutbacks foreshadowed by the Government would not be enough if the economy stalled with warnings that the expected number of people on benefits in 2008 had already been passed.
8 July, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA
PS well short of women target
The number of women in the South African Public Service was well short of the Government’s 50 per cent target with the latest data revealing only 34 per cent of Senior Management Service positions were filled by women.
Minister for Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said according to Persal data, the percentage of women in senior management positions grew by only 2 per cent between March 2007 and March 2008.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said this fell 16 per cent short of the Government’s 2009 target.
She said the low number of women in senior management positions was a concern, and the Government would make sure the “issue was addressed”.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said there were environmental factors, such as the lack of breast feeding facilities, which prevented women from serving at a senior level.
She said she thought women of child-bearing age felt that they could not meet the demands of senior positions without jeopardising the care of their children.
“Although we are gender sensitive in this country it is clear that parenting is still mostly the role of the women,” she said.
“I believe that there were policy frameworks within place to ameliorate the 50 percent figure by next year.”
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said one program aimed at addressing the challenges women faced was the development of Workplace Forums for Women Managers.
She said the forums aimed to bring women managers together to share their experiences, challenges and successes in the workplace.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said her Department was currently providing support to other Departments to help implement its eight-Principle Action Plan for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.
“This will ensure the creation of a bigger pool of women in prospects for upward mobility to senior management positions in order to deal with the achievement of the 50 percent set target,” she said.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said a draft document and a directive on reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities within the Public Service would be provided.
She said the policy document would be used to consult with relevant stakeholders in order to drive the acceleration of the attainment of the required minimum target of 2 per cent.
She said people with disabilities constituted 0.17 percent of the total number of employees in the Public Service, a figure which had increased marginally from 0.11 per cent in 2002.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said at the rate in which the Government employed people with disabilities, it did not appear as if the target of 2 per cent would be achieved by March 2010.
8 July, 2008
GHANA
PS called on to improve performance
The First Deputy Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Freddie Blay has challenged Public Service workers to make the PS a modern and flexible instrument of development, capable of applying sound management principles and upholding the core values of good governance.
Mr Blay said this goal, together with improving the areas of policy analysis, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review, would help the country reach middle-income status by 2015.
He said Ghana hoped to attain its Millennium Development Goals by 2015, despite global setbacks such as rising crude oil prices.
He said globalisation and the information and communication technology highway had revolutionised service provision methods, structures and the world economy, which called for new perspectives and techniques of service delivery to be investigated.
During his keynote address at the Public Service Day and President’s Excellence Awards for Innovation in the Public Services, Mr Blay said encouraging competition and building partnership with the private sector was the key to the growth of the country.
“Let us play our individual roles to the best of our ability,” he said. “We reap and share the benefits amongst ourselves and generations to come.”
Mr Blay said a major issue in current development discussions was how to enable public services in Africa to become effective agents of change in the face of development challenges.
He said retaining higher calibre and better-motivated personnel would be a positive step towards achieving the key function of the Public Service – translating national vision into tangible outcomes.
Mr Blay said public services could do a better job if they had adequate tools and funding, despite the constraints arising from globalisation and rapid changes in information technology.
He said the role of the public services in day to day functions meant it should be independent and insulated from the influence of partisan politics.
Mr Blay said Ghana should take the lead to provide Africa with a strong, prosperous and stable nation.
He said issues such as economic governance and management, corporate governance systems and socio-economic development were important in Ghana’s bid to gain middle-income status.
Mr Blay said Citizens/Service Charters, developed for 55 agencies or institutions to help with economic governance and management, had helped improve public accountability and good governance.
With regard to corporate governance, he said there were significant improvements in the country’s infrastructure in the areas of airport expansions, stadia development and roads rehabilitation.
Mr Blay said the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had a growth rate of 6.4 per cent last year and was expected to reach 7 per cent this year.
8 July, 2008
SWEDEN
Broadcaster to reduce sponsorship
An investigation into public broadcasting in Sweden has recommended the public broadcaster cut back on its current level of sponsorship and that the television licence fees be renamed.
The investigation recommended the TV licence fee be replaced by a ‘public service charge’ to help placate people who paid the fee on their laptops.
Chief investigator, Rose-Marie Frebran, said her main criticisms concerned Swedish Television’s high number of sponsors in 2007.
Mr Frebran said 50 television events had sponsorship with sponsor logos visible in 400 programs.
She said this figure needed to be cut down by at least half.
The investigation was generally positive towards Swedish Radio and Television and suggested support of the industries by allowing them to pay and withdraw VAT, and to give them an extra two per cent funding support per year.
Chief Executive Officer of national television broadcaster Sveriges Television, Eva Hamilton, said the most important suggestion made in the report was that the Public Service should receive state support in addition to the TV-licence.
“State support is something neither Sveriges Radio nor Sveriges Television wants, since it leads to dependence on political approval,” Ms Hamilton said.
“We don’t want the finance minister one day to get upset at a piece on ‘Rapport’ and then the next day have to decide on how much money the public service broadcasters should get,” she said.
8 July, 2008
GHANA
Presidential awards for excellence
Nine Ghanaian institutions have been honoured in the President’s awards for Excellence in Innovation in the Public Service.
Presented on Africa Public Service Day, the institutions included the University of Ghana’s Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (CRSGIS) and its Dental and Public Health Division, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency under the Ministry of Water Resources, the Department of Works and Housing, the Ministry of Fisheries, the Judicial Service’s Private Court Process service Scheme (PCPSS) and its Commercial Courts, the Ghana Health Service (PPME), and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.
The awards initiative was aimed at forging a national partnership for effective, transparent, accountable and efficient service delivery, along with contributing to the economic growth of member states.
Minister of Public Sector Reforms, Samuel Owusu-Agyei, said the awards were initiated to raise performance levels and productivity of Public Servants in the delivery of their duties and responsibilities.
“The purpose of the award is to promote standards of excellence and inspire best management practices that will result in continuous in work place productivity,” Mr Owusu-Agyei said.
The Africa Public Service Day award, designed by African Ministers of Public and Civil Service to set standards to restore the dignity and prestige of the Public Service, took place at the Kofi Annan Information Communication Technology Centre.
The theme of the award was ‘from policy to results-based implementation’.
Mr Owusu-Agyei said the Africa Public Service Day addressed the “fundamental conditions required for strengthening competence, ethical values, image and code of conduct” for employees.
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Freddie Blay, said Public Services in Africa had been weakened by inadequate funding, unattractive incentives, antiquated regulations and malfunctioning systems.
8 July, 2008
MALDIVES
PS leadership seminar held
A seminar on Leadership in the Public Service has been conducted for the Maldives Public Service.
It was organised jointly by the Public Service Division of the President’s Office and the Public Service Training Institute with the assistance of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation.
The two-day seminar highlighted the importance of effective leadership for public sector organisations in a multi-party political environment.
It aimed to provide senior executives with the necessary leadership skills and qualities to face challenges arising from the current reform process being experienced by the country.
The seminar was inaugurated by the Minister of Atolls Development, Ahmed Thasmeen Ali who, in his inaugural address highlighted the responsibilities behind the leadership of Public Sector organisations.
He said the people who participated in the seminar were political leaders or civil service leaders who occupied key positions in Public Sector organisations.
Mr Thasmeen said these leaders needed to have a strong bond in order to work towards their shared national development objectives.
Deputy Minister at the President’s Office, who headed the Public Service division, Dr Isaam Mohamed, delivered the welcoming remarks at the opening ceremony.
8 July, 2008
NIGERIA
World bank funds capacity building
The World Bank has allocated interest-free funding for a State Governance and Capacity Building Project in Nigeria.
The Cross River, Bauchi and Kaduna State Governments were chosen as pilot States to benefit from the $18.1 million project.
The State Governance and Capacity Building Project began in 2005 and aimed to support participating States as they strengthened and improved their public and financial management of human resource management systems.
The project provided technical assistance to a number of agencies.
According to a World Bank statement, the Bank had partnered with the Cross River State Government to help make progress towards improving governance and strengthening the capacity of public sector institutions.
The World Bank said this was critical for improving service delivery, sustaining growth and reducing poverty.
It said the Sate would receive $6 million towards the project.
The Cross River project was expected to support modernisation and capacity building to public financial management, especially in accounting and expenditure control, budget preparation, external audit, fiscal responsibility and public procurement.
“Other areas of support include human resource management and training enhancement, and enhancement of judicial service delivery through the introduction of model fast track courts,” the statement said.
It said the objective of the project was to strengthen capacity for multi-fiscal planning, expenditure policy and budgeting, timely auditing and reporting, effective and transparent public procurement, improved management of personnel and payroll controls and enhanced delivery of judicial services and civil service training.
The implementing agencies included the Office of the Accountant General, Office of the Auditor General, the Budget Office of the Head of Service, the Judiciary, Management Development Institute, Due Process Office and the State Planning Commission.
The project structure showed civil servants and institutions would benefit from study tours, training and a more well-equipped work environment, while members of the public would benefit from improved service delivery, transparency and accountability in the use of resources by civil servants.
World Bank support was to complement the actions of the State Government and other development partners
George Larbi, Team Leader, said the success of the project in Cross River and other pilot states would be critical in scaling up support to other States and Local Governments in Nigeria.
“It is important that all key stakeholders continue to work together to ensure the successful implementation of the project in Cross River and other pilot States,” Mr Larbi said.
“This will enable the World Bank to extend similar support to other states in the Federation.”
1 July, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA
Performance pay scandal uncovered
The South African Public Service Commission has reported on performance pay irregularities across the SA PS, claiming a recent audit had exposed “inept management” and “serious flaws” in performance evaluations.
The PSC said an audit of the Departments of Education and Social Development at national and provincial levels had uncovered dubious “reward” payments for top Public Servants.
The report said the findings warranted urgent attention at the highest level and confirmed performance management was “not being given the necessary attention by most Departments”.
The audit assessed performance awards in the two Departments over three years, ending in 2006.
It found 55 per cent of managers did not sign performance agreements; senior managers ignored deadlines for signing agreements; mid-term performance reviews were not conducted in most Departments; and some performance rewards were paid without conducting required appraisals.
It also found that performance reward payments were “not made on merit” and in some instances “rewards were granted without the existence of performance agreements”.
The Commission described the agreements as being important as they were the “cornerstone” of achieving service delivery targets.
It said managers who had not signed an agreement went about their duties “without committing themselves to achieving the objectives of their components and Departments”.
The PSC found in some cases approval for performance rewards had been granted by provincial heads of Department, while the regulations required that a Member of the Executive Council personally approve them.
It said some Departments had overspent on performance rewards for senior managers and noted the law imposing a 1.5 per cent of the total annual senior management remuneration budget limit on the amount had often been ignored.
It said the national Department of Education had inflated the proportion to 2 per cent.
The PSC said many Departments could not provide the documents needed for the audit and called for those responsible for poor document management to be disciplined.
The Commission said the decision to conduct the audit came after an earlier exercise found flaws in schemes at the Departments of Correctional Services, Home Affairs and Labour.
It said it was concerned the problem could be “endemic to the Public Service as a whole”.
Spokesperson on Public Service issues with the Opposition Democratic Alliance, Karel Minnie, said the party was concerned at the “massive shortcomings” revealed by the PSC.
“It is clear Department officials receive performance bonuses irrespective of whether they achieve what is required of them,” Mr Minnie said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Social Development, Zingaphi Jakuja, said the Department’s Director-General was above reproach in terms of his own performance appraisals.
“All performance evaluation meetings of the DG were chaired by the PSC and recommendations were approved by the Minister,” Ms Jakuja said.
The Minister of Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, said the number of managers who had signed performance agreements as of January was “unacceptably low” and a new survey of compliance levels would be conducted.
In a separate report this month, the PSC said three former provincial heads of
Department in KwaZulu-Natal had wrongfully been paid performance bonuses totalling almost A$10,000 in the 2004-05 financial year.
1 July, 2008
UNITED STATES
Discrimination found in Justice Department
The United States Department of Justice has been found to have violated its own policies and broken the law when it selected work experience applicants on the basis of their political affiliations.
An investigation by the Department’s Inspector-General and the Office of Professional Responsibility uncovered the breaches, alleged to have been carried out by two high-ranking political appointments no longer on the payroll.
The investigation found one of the staffers had passed over an applicant who professed admiration for the environmental group Greenaction and another with ties to the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, deeming them “unacceptable” candidates.
The report found the officer, who left the Justice Department last year, had sent colleagues an e-mail complaining about “leftist commentary and buzzwords” in applications and that many of the underlying documents, on which she and others wrote comments, were destroyed before the probe began.
The report criticised former Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney-General for failing to supervise the woman and for weeding out candidates based on what he considered were “impermissible considerations”.
It found the former Chief “might have” denied an applicant because she had written a law review article about gender discrimination in the military.
Experts said he and the woman were unlikely to face penalties for what investigators called deliberate “misconduct” as they had left Government employment.
Traditionally, the highly sought after work experience jobs had been awarded on merit, but in 2002 top Justice Department officials moved to give political appointees more control, prompting complaints from the career ranks.
According to the investigation report, the problem rose again in 2006 when hundreds of applications were rejected for what it labeled “questionable” reasons.
Investigators said candidates for the 2006 program whose résumés indicated liberal affiliations were weeded out at three times the rate of conservative-leaning applicants.
Attorney Carol Lam, who was fired for reasons that remain under investigation, had raised question about a decision to reject a candidate who had won a prestigious clerkship with a Democratic judge.
The report said Peter Keisler, then chief of the Justice Department's civil division, also questioned why several applicants to his unit were denied, including a Harvard Law School graduate and former Justice summer intern who had worked as a paralegal at Planned Parenthood.
The report on the work experience programs was first in a series of investigations into the role politics might have played in law enforcement and hiring decisions at the Justice Department over the course of the Bush administration.
Attorney-General, Michael Mukasey, said he had taken steps to overhaul the hiring process as he considering politics in hiring for career positions was “unacceptable”.
Former Justice Department officials from Democratic and Republican administrations said the study underscored the challenge for the next President.
1 July, 2008
FIJI
Top jobs go in cost cutting blitz
Up to 30 of Fiji’s most senior Public Service positions could be scrapped in a bid to save on salary costs.
The Fiji Cabinet said in a statement that it had approved the abandonment of several posts as part of an exercise by the Public Service Commission to institute a 10 per cent reduction in the size and cost of the Fiji Public Service
Fiji Public Service Association Secretary, Rajeshwar Singh, said the 30 positions being targeted were at the senior, principal and director level.
Mr Singh said the move was improper, illogical and one that would cause negative effects.
“This would make savings of up to $40 million,” he said.
He said Cabinet based its decision on a submission by interim Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, who said within the next two months a number of vacant positions would be removed from the Public Service.
“These positions are substantively vacant thus funding provisions can be quoted as savings immediately,” Commodore Bainimarama said.
Mr Singh said the PSC had not consulted with his association as they “are obliged to by law to arrive at a mutual agreement”.
Mr Singh said the PSC had not revealed any details about the 10 per cent reduction.
“Where such actions may affect our members, we reserve the right to take appropriate action,” he said.
“If anything, by ignoring other areas of wastage they are biased against the ordinary employee in the Public Service, some of whom are already near or below the poverty line...”
Mr Singh said if any reductions for savings purposes were to be administered, they should be spread over the whole of the Public Service in a fair and reasonable manner, including the benefits and perks of Permanent Secretaries and Ministers.
Commodore Bainimarama said acting appointments for some of the posts would be terminated.
He said the PSC Task Force would hold another round of talks with individual Ministries and Departments in the next 12 weeks to accelerate the 10 per cent reduction exercise.
“Discussions will focus on disestablished positions, restructuring and realignment of corporate functions in reconfigured ministries as well as other reform initiatives,” Commodore Bainimarama said.
1 July, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Next phase of PS reforms outlined
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown has outlined the next phase of his drive for “excellence and fairness” in the UK Public Service.
In a foreword to a Cabinet Office report, Mr Brown said he wanted every element of the British Public Service to be the best in the world.
Mr Brown said the first reform objective was to protect universal entitlements to basic standards by implementing a new National Health Service Constitution; guaranteeing minimum standards of community policing; and weeding out underperformance.
“Everyone has a right to expect a first-class service, wherever they live and whatever their background,” he said.
“It is unacceptable that those in our most deprived communities too often experience our worst public services, or that hardworking families cannot always rely on the services they depend on.”
Mr Brown said the second objective was to “respond to people’s rising aspirations for high-quality services that are shaped by them, available when they need them and tailored to meet their individual circumstances”.
He said the third goal was to create a new professionalism in the Public Service.
“This will not mean giving up on reform - as some would encourage us to do,” he said.
“But instead requires us to create new opportunities for professionals to take control of the process of change - with less top-down control and a greater say for front-line staff.”
Mr Brown said that over the next 10 years there would be a growing role for independent public service providers, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.
“We have only just begun to harness the potential of these kinds of non-profit organisations,” he said, “and in the coming weeks we will set out how we can promote a new wave of innovation led by social enterprise whilst protecting the values of publicly funded services free at the point of use.”
Mr Brown said greater citizen empowerment and new professionalism would not mean the Government would leave people on their own.
He said the Government would provide strong leadership, clear direction, sustained investment for Public Services and would stand up for its citizens.
“So this is my approach to achieving excellence in our public services: real and lasting change driven by the users of public services themselves, backed up by professionals with the freedom and responsibility to be responsive to service users and supported by an enabling government that is prepared to lead, invest and put in place the necessary reforms,” Mr Brown said.
1 July, 2008
SRI LANKA
Claims Foreign Service politicised
A community action group in Sri Lanka has accused the nation’s Cabinet of politcising the foreign service by appointing diplomats, a power its says could only be exercised by the Sri Lankan Public Service Commission.
The group, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) said they were committed to building a nation of integrity and by making such appointments, cabinet may have been overstepping its powers.
“There are no provisions (in the Constitution) permitting the Cabinet of Ministers to make appointments to the ranks of the Foreign Service,” TISL said in a paper.
It said the Constitution gave the President the power to appoint heads of diplomatic missions, but candidates for other diplomatic positions such as Minister, Minister Counsellor, Counsellor and the first, second and third secretaries, could only be chosen and appointed from the Sri Lanka Foreign Service (SLFS).
The group said any appointments made outside the legal processes exercised by the PSC and Sri Lanka Foreign Service were illegal.
It said appointments made by the President should be investigated by the Parliamentary High Posts Committee but weren’t.
“The High Posts Committee has been totally ineffective, intransparent and serves no purpose,” it said.
TISL said there was emerging evidence that many Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) Officers, handpicked by the Cabinet on undisclosed criteria, had been posted to various ranks of the Foreign Service.
“There is no valid rationale for this, except permitting political authorities to handpick their favourites for diplomatic postings,” the TISL paper said.
“This too is contrary to the … Constitution.”
The group said there was an information blackout regarding the criteria for diplomatic postings, the names and backgrounds of those who had been appointed, the basis of appointment and the number of vacancies.
TISL said Sri Lanka Administration Service Officers had also been appointed to SLFS posts.
The paper made several recommendations including that all appointments under the SLFS be filled from and among SLFS officers and by the PSC; appointments of management assistants in missions be made on merit following a competitive examination; safeguards be introduced to avoid the abuse of constitutional power; criteria be adopted to prevent questionable recruitments in the Foreign Service; and the information of appointees and selection processes be publicised.
1 July, 2008
SCOTLAND
Strikes loom in pay case
Thousands of Public Servants in Scotland are preparing to strike for better pay.
Members of the main Scottish Government union, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) are voting in industrial action with walkouts tipped to be the most likely outcome.
The PCS has recommended strike action and the community has geared up for major disruptions.
Despite efforts from the Finance Secretary, John Swinney, to head off the strike, union negotiators were expected to call for a two-day strike in the next few weeks, followed by further stop-work-actions if the deadlock remained unbroken.
Prosecutions in Scotland's Courts were likely to be brought to a standstill should Court and Crown Office staff join the industrial action.
Property transactions, art galleries and payments to farmers were also likely to be affected.
Social workers, housing benefit staff, teaching assistants, dinner ladies, cooks, cleaners, architects, traffic wardens and refuse collectors were expected to join the Scottish Public Service’s strike in the biggest show of industrial unrest for years.
Ministers have offered Public Servants a deal worth 2 per cent a year over three years, although they said they would increase the offer for some public workers.
The offer was scorned by unions who called for 6 per cent this year, claiming rises in food and fuel prices meant workers could not survive on low pay increases.
Political Officer for the PCS in Scotland, Lynn Henderson, said they were seeking a fair increase for members, as prices were going up much quicker than the 2 per cent offer.
Ms Henderson said the Public Servants would attempt to co-ordinate their strike action with that of other public bodies, such as Councils.
The first ballot by the PCS, which had a closing date of 18 July, covered 4,000 Public Servants in the Scottish PS and in the Registers of Scotland, which handled registration of property transactions.
Officials at the Crown Office and Prosecutor Fiscal Service and the Scottish Courts Service have been urged to go on strike and were to vote on possible action in the near future.
In an attempt to head off a strike, Ministers wrote to Public Servants offering an increase of 13 per cent for workers in the lowest pay bands, but the maximum offer for most staff would be no more than 4.5 per cent.
They also offered faster progress through pay bands and a reduction in the qualifying period for annual leave.
Mr Swinney said it was necessary work within the constraints imposed by the UK Government applying the smallest increase in a Scottish Government budget since devolution.
“I believe that this pay proposal is better than most staff would have expected, which is a result of my determination to allow as much flexibility as I could to help staff meet the pressures of a rising cost of living,” Mr Swinney said.
“I have been mindful of the pressures you face. I simply ask you to recognise the financial background against which I have taken this decision.”
Chancellor Alistair Darling urged the unions to opt for low pay increases in an effort to combat inflation, which had risen to its highest level in over a decade at 3.3 per cent.
1 July, 2008
SRI LANKA
New recruits to be bi-lingual
All new Public Servants in Sri Lanka will have to learn a second language to be confirmed in their jobs under new rules introduced by the Government.
In its efforts to create a bilingual PS workforce, the Sri Lankan Government has made second languages compulsory for all new recruits of the Public Service, who will have to pass efficiency tests within five years to keep their jobs.
In 2007 the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration laid foundations to make the Public Service bilingual to promote national integration between different ethnic communities.
According to the policy, new recruits to the Public Service should acquire competency in a second language within five years of joining the service, with failure to do so resulting in possible job loss.
The Minister for Constitutional Affairs and National Integration , D.E.W. Gunasekera, said under the policy Public Servants must have a working knowledge of both Sinhala and Tamil.
An Institute of Language Training is to be set up in Agalawatta to facilitate the process, where a series of language training programs including residential programs for language trainers, translators, and interpreters would be conducted.
Mr Gunasekera said a crash program to teach languages to Public Servants was being implemented and would comprise of in-house training at the Bhasa Mandiraya at Rajagiriya. Currently Tamil was taught in 59 Pirivenas in the island, to lay persons and the clergy.
1 July, 2008
IRELAND
Pension calculations changed
The Department of Finance has written to the heads of all Departments and Agencies in the Irish Public Sector informing them of changes to pension allowances for Public Servants.
The Department issued a Circular announcing that the method of calculating variable allowances for PS pensions had been changed.
“The purpose of the change is to move away from the focus on the final three years of service for the calculation of pension on variable pensionable allowances,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said, “in order to reduce the potential distortion of preferred work choices.”
The spokeswoman said prior to the reform, people had to continue to work “unsocial” hours up until retirement in order to qualify for the benefit of an unsocial hours allowance in their pension.
“The main change is that, in general, it will no longer be a requirement to hold an allowance on the last day of reckonable service - or within the last three years of service,” she said, “depending on the terms of the particular pension scheme - in order for it to reckon in final pensionable remuneration.”
The spokeswoman said the change was part of the overall Public Service pension reform program announced in December 2003, and was recommended by the Commission on Public Service Pensions.
1 July, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Health review to empower nurses
A wide-ranging review of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service has proposed that new health services, run by nurses, be allowed to play a major role in the provision of primary health care.
The review by the Under-Secretary of State in the Health Department, Lord Darzi, suggested nurse-led partnerships should be given a statutory right to request a local Primary Care Trust (PCT) to allow them to set up as a not-for-profit trust.
It the PCT were to agree, Lord Darzi said, care services would improve and an independent NHS organisation would be established to provide patient services using NHS resources while under contract to the PCT
The review suggested nurses transferring from the NHS to a not-for-profit sector should not lose their pension rights, a requirement that had held back applications in the past.
It pointed to the example of nurse-run services already existing in the NHS, such as a 600-strong not-for-profit company in Surrey that had provided community nursing and therapy services since 2006.
It said nurse-run services had the potential to cut bureaucracy in primary care and there were other examples of how independent services could be valuable in primary care.
The review found that around 150,000 staff worked in community health services but only a handful of staff-led social enterprises provided NHS services.
Lord Darzi said the new freedoms proposed by the Government should lead to an increase in the number, agreeing with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s prediction of a larger role for independent non-profit organisations.
Mr Brown previously opposed foundation trusts in the NHS, but after limiting the scale of their financial freedoms, has come to embrace them despite their unpopularity with health unions.
Ministers have suggested the voluntary or social enterprise sector could play a big role in the provision of job placements and health primary care.
Mr Brown said he was not proposing “a return to the most vulnerable in our society depending on charity, but a genuine openness to new ways of delivering services to the benefit of all”.
He said the Cabinet Office wanted to see a wider development of innovative organisations such as foundation hospitals run at an arm’s length from Government with “significant scope for staff and professionals to run services directly responding to users and commissioners”.
He said the Government had proposed an expansion of nurse-led services in the primary care sector in the past, but progress had been slow.
1 July, 2008
FRANCE
Ad ban on national broadcaster
Advertising on France’s public service television network is to be banned in favour of a new tax on telecommunications companies and commercial broadcasters.
French President, Nicolas Sarkozy has approved the move which he said would improve the quality of public programming and create a national broadcasting organisation similar to the BBC’s World Service.
Mr Sarkozy’s plans were based on proposals coming from a Commission headed by the leader of the Parliamentary group of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) Party, Jean-Francois Cope.
The Commission said the current state of French public service broadcasting was a “house of cards”.
Mr Sarkozy said France needed a balance between public channels and private channels.
“We have to allow the private channels to develop and at the same time we have to give France Televisions the means of offering quality programs to as many viewers as possible,” he said.
There has been strong opposition to the plan from a number of sides including France’s biggest media and telecommunications companies, including telecoms industry association FFT.
The Director General of FFT, Yves Le Mouel, said a long as the law wasn’t voted on they would try to convince Parliamentarians to oppose it.
Mr Le Mouel said after that the body would appeal at the European level.
Commercial broadcasters are unhappy with the tax, saying it would force them to subsidise their State-backed competitors, despite the fact they were expected to benefit from increased advertising spending as a result of the change.
The tax is to be paid by internet, mobile-phone and commercial-broadcasters, which would pay a tax of 0.9% of sales to finance ad-free public television.
Mr Sarkozy said this would raise up to €380m, but it was short of what public service broadcasters needed.
The State-owned France Televisions would need to make up the €834 million it earned from advertising and sponsorship in 2006.
Private companies and trade unions representing workers in Public Sector media have gone on strike over concerns the plan could put jobs at risk and take away the independence of broadcasters.
Culture Minister, Christine Albanel, denied the move would threaten broadcaster independence.
“There is no risk of control, Ms Albanel said.
The changes were expected to take effect in January 2009, with ads being phased out over an 11 month period.