ST.GEORGE'S Grenada, May 25th 2011 - Former Prime Minister, Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell and Former Deputy Prime Minister, Senator the Honourable Gregory Bowen met with a team from the Commonwealth Secretariat. The team comprised Dr. Mark Kirton and Ms. Zahra Alleyne of the secretariat as well as Ms. Carina Aird and Anna Brizan of the Department of Public Administration. The team solicited the advice of the Opposition in relation to the setting up of a training institution for the Grenada Public Service. The institution is intended as a means of educating and empowering public workers to better meet the needs of the citizens of Grenada and is part of a wider project across the Commonwealth.
The Opposition, while supportive of the idea and describing it as a great initiative, stated that several factors need to be taken into consideration such as the need for information technology playing an important role in the process. Senator Bowen stated that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the vision and mission of the proposed institution. He stated that the training of the Public Service is very important and training should therefore revolve around what’s going on in the private sector so that public servants know and understand better the clients they are to serve.
The Former Deputy Prime Minister spoke of the importance of using ICT to increase the efficiency of operation. In this way he stated that services can be more easily accessed and provided nearly around the clock, something that the private sector requires to gain a competitive advantage in a business world involving various time zones and time deadlines. He questioned the practicality of governments already in financial distress being able to fund what amounts, according to the Commonwealth’s proposal, to another ‘university’ on their own without addition funding aid. Instead he recommended the private sector be an integral part of the institution with the aim of turning the public service into entrepreneurship enablers, which will encourage the private sector to participate significantly in the funding of such an institution including internment in the private sector, and avoid focusing on the various governments to fund such a project.
The issues of accreditation as well as the new institution achieving private sector efficiency in the public service operations also came up for discussion.
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Grenada News