PUBLIC SECTOR SERVICE IMPROVED BUT STILL A LONG WAY TO GO…says Senator Dwight Nelson
Sen. Dwight Nelson Minister Without Portfolio, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MoFP), is greeted by (from left) Kareen Waugh, Deputy Commissioner, Operations, Inland Revenue Dept and Meris Haughton, Director, Public Relations, Tax Administration. The Minister addressed the Public Sector Modernisation Division Conference on Customer Service on March 11 in Kingston. During his presentation the Minister noted that service had greatly improved in the public sector, but much more work needs to be done to motivate and reward employees.
Minister without Portfolio in
the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Dwight Nelson today
(March 11) urged workers in public sector entities to gain feedback from
stakeholders in order to improve service even further.
Noting that there are at least
165 public sector entities the Minister said, "Feedback is one of the
mechanisms that identifies for you, your strengths that you can build on, and
your weaknesses that you can correct."
The Minster was addressing
members of the Public Sector Customer Service Network who participated in a
workshop at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston today, (March 11), to further
improve service delivery across government agencies.
The Minister noted that he had
been impressed with the level of dedication of public servants, even junior
staff, but that there was still work to be done to satisfy good governance.
"I, who have come into the
public sector as an outsider, have become very impressed with the way public
servants, civil servants behave insofar as the protection, the zealousness, and
the jealousness with which they deliver excellence....The average civil servant,
even those who join the Service out of high school, you would be surprised,
when they get into the system how committed they are to providing good
service."
Using the services of the
Inland Revenue Department as an example, the Minister noted that in the current
economic situation, public servants need to make the public satisfied when they
come into government offices, particularly to pay taxes.
"When a public servant delivers
bad service, nobody talks about the employee, the castigations are delivered
towards the government....If we want to collect more taxes, the person who gets
in line at the tax office must not be made to turn away and go through the door
because they cannot wait any longer. They must be dealt with expeditiously and
efficiently so that the time that you would normally take to collect taxes from
one person, you use that same time to collect taxes from five persons. The
efficiency and effectiveness and the type of service that is needed is one of
the driving forces which demands change in how we provide service to the
public," the Minister said.
Noting that the public servant
needs to be trained and motivated to do the job, the Minister Nelson said, "We
need to move to the 21st century. We need to look at our people to
ensure that they are properly prepared and geared for service delivery, that
they are properly trained, rewarded, and motivated. Unless we do that, the
service they offer is going to be reflected in their dissatisfaction."
The conference and workshop was
organized by the Public Sector Modernisation Division (PSMD) of the Office of
the Cabinet. Participants benefited from presentations on the experiences of
the Inland Revenue Department with its Automated Motor Vehicle System and the
National Water Commission's Customer Service Information System.
The session is expected to
further guide the PSMD in the development of a national customer service policy
and the implementation of a customer service monitoring framework.