‘Public servants afraid to write reports about colleagues’

One of the biggest problems faced by the Public Service in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is that public servants are afraid to write adverse reports about their colleagues.

As he made remarks at an event held on Wednesday evening, as part of Public Service Week, chair of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Cecil ‘Blazer’ Williams said heads of department must be brave enough to point out wrongdoing to offenders.{{more}}

Williams was speaking at the Methodist Church Hall in Kingstown, the venue of a discussion on ‘Productivity and Service Excellence in the Public Sector’.

“When public servants operate in a particular way that is not in the best interest of the department and the work itself, supervisors, heads of department ought to be willing and be brave enough, bold enough, to say to those persons that you are doing wrong and you are supposed to operate in this way, and they must be prepared to put it in writing.

“One of the biggest problems we have in the public service … is that people are afraid to write things that assist in the process of keeping proper order and discipline within the public service.”

Williams, who has been chair of the PSC for over 15 years, said the PSC cannot be blamed for not taking action against individuals when there is no adverse report before the Commission on that person. He said sometimes the PSC is embarrassed when they are asked to act in urgent cases, but cannot.

“… The PSC is sometimes embarrassed when … they are told a matter is urgent because it involves the safety of public servants and we have to act, but there is no back-up information, no body wants to put anything in writing.”

He said public servants need to put their hand where their mouth is and write.

The featured speaker at the discussion was Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves.