Independent Senator Lindell Nurse on Friday urged the government to base public service promotions on merit and performance rather than time served in acting roles, warning that “blanket” confirmations risk entrenching mediocrity and inefficiency.
As the upper chamber moved to ratify the Public Service (Appointments) Bill, paving the way for a raft of permanent appointments for more than 2 000 public officers in the New Year, Senator Nurse argued that while he supported the legislation, promotions should not be determined solely by the length of time an officer has acted in a post. The bill seeks to grant permanent appointments to public officers who have been acting in positions for three years.
As the country works to modernise public services, Senator Nurse suggested that those promoted should be fully suited to the roles they would occupy.
“If we are to develop our governmental services and our productivity, we need to be able to have persons who are obviously fit for the jobs in which they are working,” he said. “A blanket promotion of people acting cannot be the best way of dealing with this situation.”
He maintained that permanent appointments should follow a rigorous process that assesses technical competence, qualifications and overall suitability for the role.
“We need to be ensured that people being promoted have the necessary technical skills [and] the qualifications,” Senator Nurse said, adding that these assessments should take place before an officer is permanently appointed. Without such safeguards, he warned, the system risks entrenching “mediocrity” and inefficiency.
“If we don’t, we continue to accommodate… some levels of mediocrity [and] inefficiency, which may be occurring because some of the people who benefit may not necessarily be the best persons for those appointments,” he told the Senate.
The independent senator also questioned whether the public service has an effective and consistently applied performance management system. He called for regular evaluations of civil servants to ensure they are meeting the standards required of their positions.
“I would like to see a system of performance appraisals,” he said. “I don’t know if this is a requirement in the civil service, and if it is, is it actually being done? Is every civil servant being evaluated on a regular basis?”
He argued that performance reviews should not be punitive but developmental, helping employees identify gaps and access opportunities for improvement.
“If not, what is there, and what is being done to ensure that you can help them along the way?” he asked. “How do you ensure that the necessary training, retraining or whatever is there so that people can upgrade their skills?”
The senator further emphasised that promotions within the public service must be clearly separated from politics, insisting that the process should be administrative rather than influenced by parliamentary action.
“We need to make sure that this is not really seen to be any political thing… that you come into Parliament and you appoint a whole set of people into permanent positions,” he said. “This is an administrative function… ensuring that these promotions are being done on a regular basis.”
In a response from the government, Senator Shantal Munro-Knight said a formal framework for assessing performance and guiding career progression already exists within the public service.
She pointed to the Performance Review and Development System (PRDS) as the system now in use. However, she acknowledged that improvements are needed to make it more effective.
“We are reviewing the PRDS system to make sure that it functions even more efficiently,” Senator Munro-Knight said.
She explained that the promotion process for senior public officers has become more rigorous, and signalled the government’s intention to strengthen standards while advancing public sector reform. (SB)
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