Government of Anguilla politicians, Permanent Secretaries, Heads of Departments and other senior public service employees, have met as part of what is expected to be a series of future discussions on various matters including good inter-personal relations within ministries and departments, the efficient administration of the island and critical issues of national development. The initial meeting at the Teachers’ Resource Centre on Tuesday, January 17, was called by Deputy Governor, Mr. Perin Bradley, on behalf of the Government of Chief Minister, Mr. Victor Banks.
Permanent Secretary, Mr. Foster Rogers, who chaired the meeting, said in part: “We must always be aware of the responsibility placed on our shoulders as public servants in nation-building…We can only deliver effective services if we plan, monitor, and evaluate them on an on-going basis and hold each other accountable for their delivery.” He went on: “The Anguilla Public Service has already articulated this in our leadership statement and I quote: As civil service leaders, we take responsibility for the efficient and effective delivery of Government’s programmes and priorities ensuring an engaged and productive staff and the provision of high quality service to the public. We are inspired to work. We are connected in our engagement and we empower our staff.’”
Mr. Rogers further stated that it was an opportune time of the year to renew contacts and discuss problems of mutual interest with colleagues from among the service; and to engage each other in the mutual interest of the people of Anguilla.
Chief Minister Banks was grateful to the Deputy Governor for affording the Ministers of Government the opportunity to meet the senior managers and other officials in the various departments within their ministerial portfolios. He said that this was needed in order to get a more holistic assessment of what should be done to deliver the Government’s programmes.
Mr. Banks continued as follows:
“I believe that having described briefly the relationship let me in an annotated format tell you what the public is saying about us as a Team:-
• The system is slow and bureaucratic.
• We are only interested in getting our salaries at the end of the month.
• We don’t make the connection between the work we do and the economic situation.
• We are only interested in furthering our personal and family interests.
• We believe that it is our job to give the public a hard time.
• We do not promote customer friendly initiatives.
• Our upfront people are not properly trained.
• We are not innovative or creative — we only have reasons for why an idea cannot work.
• We pass blame rather than accept responsibility.
• We do not understand business.
• We do not answer letters or return calls.
• We do not keep pace with new developments in service delivery.
• There is no confidentiality in the system.
• One hand does not seem to know what the other is doing. Not enough information sharing across departments.
• We do not understand the importance of providing more capacity to revenue earning departments.
• The entire system is characterized by low productivity and there is an absence of effective performance measurement systems.
This list is not exhaustive but I am sure you get the picture. As a team we do not have a good image. Truth be told, even members of the team speak about us in the third person. It is time to recognize that every criticism about the system is about everyone. Hopefully, that is why we are here!”
The Chief Minister spoke at length on the Government’s development programme. Some of the projects he mentioned going into 2020 were: a Cafeteria Project; Airport Expansion; Secondary School Expansion; Marina and Water Front Development; Cruise Port Development; and a Deep Water Harbour. He also spoke on various other matters including general behavioural problems and attitudes among public servants, leakage of information to further personal agenda and the need for diligence in service, cooperation and respect among fellow public servants and smooth working relations with Ministers of Government.
Mr. Aidan Harrigan, Permanent Secretary, Finance, spoke mainly on the Government’s financial situation, the need for careful budgeting and expenditure, and the impact that the recession is still having on Anguilla. For instance, there was a shortfall of some 31 million dollars in revenue in 2016.
He continued: “We are now in 2017, almost ten years since the crisis – so it is has taken the island a long time to recover. Revenue for [2016] is about 188 million dollars. That is actually slightly down on 2015 when we collected 191 million dollars. The target for this year is governed a lot by what we have to do in expenditure. As I said, we have to meet obligations in policing, education, health; we have to pay debt, pay salaries and retiring benefits. Notwithstanding the fact that we have collected 188 million dollars for 2016, we have to collect in the region of 211 million dollars for 2017.
“That is a challenge and I would admonish us that, in terms of the mind-set starting out in the New Year, we have to be cautious in how we proceed with expenditure. The one saving grace I can point to in terms of the financial situation – notwithstanding the fact that revenue was really down compared with what was expected – [is that]we managed to constrain recurrent expenditure so that it just about matched the recurrent revenue. That is how we managed to get through the year.”
Deputy Governor, Mr. Perin Bradley, spoke at length on various matters regarding the public service and the responsibility of its members to support the Government’s development programme. He pointed to three of his key priority areas of expectancy in the work of the public service: strategic planning; developing a competency framework; and improving accountability.
Mr. Bradley continued: “We all must realise that public service is a privilege. We have been tasked to play our part in the building and development of Anguilla. That is a project we cannot undertake by turning up to work late, by weak productivity and a lack of initiative.
“As the fiscal constraints on Government continue, the public of Anguilla, and in particular those who most need our assistance: the young, the elderly, the vulnerable, need all of us in the public service to commit ourselves to making a positive difference.
“Every EC dollar paid in taxes is a small vote of trust by the people of Anguilla, investing in the public service and these same people expect and deserve our hard work and commitment to them. Each one of us can and does make a difference, and it will be one of the great privileges of my life, to work in the spirit of communion with you, to improve the lives of the people of Anguilla by delivering an efficient, modern and productive civil service to our Government.
“I would like to end by throwing out a challenge to all of us:
• In the spirit of innovation and creativity, try a new approach to confronting our challenges. All those ideas that were floating around in your head set them down on paper. For those of you asking why not or why, now is your chance to propose something, send us a memo, talk about it to your Permanent Secretaries.
• Be willing to learn from the experiences of others – colleagues, countries, other organisations. We don’t have all the solutions but perhaps we can learn from someone else.
• Be a better colleague. See the value in your colleague. We are not perfect but, if we combine our efforts, I am more than sure that we can achieve almost perfect outcomes.”
The meeting ended with a fitting motivational talk by Mr. Curtis Richardson, Minister of Infrastructure, who, in his well-known style, vernacular, and humour, created much laughter among all in attendance – notwithstanding the seriousness of his message.
