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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The public sector is so rigid and fragmented that even Prime Minister Bruce Golding was temporarily blocked from getting information from his own office.
Golding cited the incident to illustrate the need for further public sector reform, in a drive to improve efficiency. Two weeks ago Golding requested information, but his assistant was blocked by another member of the Office of the Prime Minister.
"She was working on something that was crucially important. She came to me to complain that she was having difficulty accessing information in another section of the Office of the Prime Minister. Until I lost my temper and said, 'anytime you see her come and ask for information is me send for it and therefore stop fooling around'," recalled Golding in addressing members of the public and private sector at the National Productivity Conference 2008 yesterday in Kingston. "And it's not that people are ill-minded it is just a system and a culture that has developed over many years, and it is something that we going to have to address."
The government is the single largest employer of about "117,000" which includes some 40,000 civil servants and even more workers indirectly employed via executive agencies and other bodies. Golding said fragmentation and rigidity within the sector affects productivity.
"We have to decide what are best practices to run an organisation of this size we probably have to speak to someone like General Motors," said Golding on the public sector. "I do not accept that something which takes six weeks could not be done at times in two or three days, if the focus and concentration was there."
Public sector workers like their private sector counterpart must understand and appreciate the goals of the organisation otherwise productivity will be elusive, he said.
"If you have the public sector workers and tell them to write one paragraph as to what is the mission statement and goal of the organisation. You will probably get thousands of different responses and also blank sheets... In such a situation measuring performance is difficult," he explained.
In his address, Golding also spoke of resuscitating the Partnership for Progress (PFP) and include within it labour market reform. He wants to use best practices in countries like Ireland and China to boost Jamaica's competitiveness.
He said labour reform would build on literature and local studies done in 1992. The PFP was initially hyped under the previous administration as a tripartite agreement for socio-economic progress involving government, employers and trade unions. It was originally modelled on the Republic of Ireland's 'Programme for National Recovery'.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magaz...EMPORARILY.asp
The public sector is so rigid and fragmented that even Prime Minister Bruce Golding was temporarily blocked from getting information from his own office.
Golding cited the incident to illustrate the need for further public sector reform, in a drive to improve efficiency. Two weeks ago Golding requested information, but his assistant was blocked by another member of the Office of the Prime Minister.
"She was working on something that was crucially important. She came to me to complain that she was having difficulty accessing information in another section of the Office of the Prime Minister. Until I lost my temper and said, 'anytime you see her come and ask for information is me send for it and therefore stop fooling around'," recalled Golding in addressing members of the public and private sector at the National Productivity Conference 2008 yesterday in Kingston. "And it's not that people are ill-minded it is just a system and a culture that has developed over many years, and it is something that we going to have to address."
The government is the single largest employer of about "117,000" which includes some 40,000 civil servants and even more workers indirectly employed via executive agencies and other bodies. Golding said fragmentation and rigidity within the sector affects productivity.
"We have to decide what are best practices to run an organisation of this size we probably have to speak to someone like General Motors," said Golding on the public sector. "I do not accept that something which takes six weeks could not be done at times in two or three days, if the focus and concentration was there."
Public sector workers like their private sector counterpart must understand and appreciate the goals of the organisation otherwise productivity will be elusive, he said.
"If you have the public sector workers and tell them to write one paragraph as to what is the mission statement and goal of the organisation. You will probably get thousands of different responses and also blank sheets... In such a situation measuring performance is difficult," he explained.
In his address, Golding also spoke of resuscitating the Partnership for Progress (PFP) and include within it labour market reform. He wants to use best practices in countries like Ireland and China to boost Jamaica's competitiveness.
He said labour reform would build on literature and local studies done in 1992. The PFP was initially hyped under the previous administration as a tripartite agreement for socio-economic progress involving government, employers and trade unions. It was originally modelled on the Republic of Ireland's 'Programme for National Recovery'.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magaz...EMPORARILY.asp