New government jobs created to support commissions
(CNS): Following the creation of several new commissions to meet the requirements of the new Constitution, government has also created a new team of civil servants to support them. Deborah Bodden, formerly secretary to the parole and prison boards, will head the new department following her appointment by Franz Manderson, the chief officer of the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, to be the Manager of the Commissions Secretariat. According to GIS, this secretariat will provide administrative support to the new constitutional commissions.
These are the Human Rights Commission, the Constitutional Commission, Commission for Standards in Public Life, and it will also support the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. Government officials said these commissions will require various forms of administrative assistance as well as a “strong research capacity” to fulfil the constitutional responsibilities.
The manager leads a team that will include four administrator/analysts, who will focus on providing the research and administrative support required by the four commissions. Established under the Deputy Governor’s Office, the Commissions Secretariat will deploy a “joint services” approach to those it serves in order to minimise costs in the current fiscal climate,” government said.
Bodden said she was looking forward to working with all four commissions and their chairs. “I am excited to be part of what is a new chapter for Cayman,” she added.
Talking about the appointment, Manderson said Bodden was selected from a strong field of candidates. He said she had shown exemplary skill on her work with the prison and parole boards, both of which have undergone significant changes. “She will be able to draw from this administrative experience as she leads the Commissions Secretariat team in the support it provides to four brand new commissions,” Manderson said. “I am delighted with this appointment, and I will be following with interest the ways in which the new commissions, with the support of the Commissions Secretariat, will contribute to the democratic strength and vigour of our nation”.
Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks recently announced 13 appointments to the Constitutional Commission, the Human Rights Commission, and the Commission for Standards in Public Life. Appointments to the Judicial and Legal Services Commission will be made within the next two tothree months, GIS stated, but gave no reason for the delay in these appointments.
Category: Local News
Let me see if I can understand the comments here. Give me more protection from crime, but wait don’t hire more Police, I want my human rights and the standard of my life protected but wait don’t hire more civil cervants to support these commissions. I think you get the picture…come on folks get real we need the Government to protect us and keep us safe. Stop the bashing and donate a day of your fantastic life in Cayman to public service.
I agree that there are certain services best provided by government. However, that is not the same thing as ensuring that the civil service is limited to such services and that such services are provided in the most efficient way possible.
I have no problem with these Commissions receiving appropriate staffing. What I have a problem with is that the size of the civil service grew at a far faster rate than the population over the past 6 years with no evidence that the quality or quantity of the service provided has increased proportionately. Hopefully for each person hired for these Commissions 10 positions elsewhere in the civil service can be eliminated by attrition.
Very appropriate photo to go with this article. I think even if they were to realize the unsustainable size of the civil service, and decided to do something about it, there would be the formation of a department to do it. Which of course would need another department to support it administratively. Simple math. In the end they might reduce half a dozen jobs by creating two dozen more.
And then tell us we’re going to have to tighten our belts to get through this recession.
…Where’s my coffee?
How much bigger can the civil service get? I only hope that the new governor will take charge here and do something. This country is suffering and the entire private sector is making cutbacks and trimming the fat to survive in spite of all the added taxation yet the government justcontinues to grow with no end in sight nor even the thought of becoming more efficient.
It appears that the only safe jobs are now in government. No wonder the civil servants are ready to fight the politicians. whilst i know the politicians can do very little to curb this problem they need to keep the pressure on the governor and the deputy governor to clean up this mess and make the civil service a lean machine.
The Government and civil service needs to start setting an example. This is absolutely terrible.
Just what we need, more civil servants leeching off our tax dollars
How is the government going to pay for yet another expansion to the public payroll?
This is no comment on the qualities of any of the candidates, but as more and more people pile on to the public sector payrolls the more the government’s revenues need to increase. Every single new dollar in public sector payroll means another dollar in NEW TAXES. The private sector is already shutting down under the weight of the recent new fees (aka taxes), and setting up another future increase by adding whole new departments will send them a clear signal that it’s time to pack it in and move on to the next little island, or perhaps Ireland.
Since every single public sector paycheck is funded by taxes or fees from the private sector, Caymanians should ask every time a government job is created: "Which existing Cayman business will pay the taxes to fund this position?" Mine? Yours? We can’t continue to presume that skimming fees from users of the financial sector’s services can fund these positions. The users of the financial sector’s services are already moving out due to the existing feestructure. Every new public sector job is a nail in the coffin of the private sector.
Don’t just say "hurray" for more jobs for Caymanians (though that is very important) because the jobs are in the wrong sector – public sector jobs drain the resources of the Caman economy, while private sector jobs ARE the economy from which the public sector is funded. Know the difference and consider that if everyone ends up on the public payroll, there will be no one in the private sector to tax to fund the payroll.
With Government spending spiralling out of control I can only imagine how some will react to the news that the Civil Service is to become fatter!!!
You ain’t seen nothing yet Mozzie. There are a bunch of new finance posts being created according to news on the civil service marl road. Many civil servants are worried because they know that the continued growth is not good for the country and they are concerned about pay cuts etc.
The majority of the Civil Servants are hard working productive people serving their Government and the people. It is a shame that the "fat" in the CS isn’t addressed if simply to maintain the good reputation of the producers.
Outstanding news! Deborah will do great. Despite the typical negative critcism, there really are some high quality civil servants working in Government.