TCI begins reduction of civil service
(CNS): The Turks and Caicos government, currently under the control of the UK has begun reducing the islands civil service with the distribution of 697 voluntary severance package quotations. According to the governor’s office the quotations outline the compensation available to those public sector workers willing to step down from their jobs. The workers have three weeks to consider government’s offer which official said also includes financial advice, CV and interview skills advice as well as assistance on identifying private sector job opportunities, vocational and academic training and skills courses.
Meanwhile, as the government seeks to slash the more than 2000 public sector head count it is seeking deputy secretaries to work under the new permanent secretaries in five new ministries. Part of the ongoing reform of the civil service the existing nine ministries will be reduced to five with new permanent secretaries for each.
According to the island’s chief financial officer despite still having a deficit of almost $15million double the amount predicted, the islands’ fiscal position is progressing. Hugh McGarel-Groves said the reason for his optimism was a 34% rise in the second quarter results, above the same period last year, in government revenues to $80.7m. At the end of September 2011 the net of revenue and expenditure showed a cumulative deficit of $14.9m. The finance boss said this increase in the half year deficit was caused by the government settling a total $8.2m of mostly unbudgeted historic liabilities including.
“The detailed results from the second quarter of this financial year reveal that there are real reasons for cautious optimism about the Government’s financial position, despite some setbacks on unbudgeted historic liabilities, as we work towards the milestones of providing a stable economic environment and reaching a financial surplus next year,” McGarel-Groves said.
In his year end review the governor said the islands prospects for 2012 were improving and he said the interim government was working hard to remedy the country’s difficulties caused by the global recession and “previous mismanagement” for which he said the people of the TCI were still paying the price.
“Despite these present difficulties and challenges, there are grounds for growing optimism in 2012,” Ric Todd said. “The latest detailed account of the TCIG finances shows that our reforms are, can and will have a positive effect.”
He said with a clear way forward elections could be held before the end of next year if the milestones were met which he admitted were still challenging. “Returning to fiscal surplus in 2012/13 is perhaps our most challenging milestone. “
Todd added that the civil recovery programme had won back 800 acres of Crown Land worth $150million, for the people, which had been misappropriated and nearly a million dollars in cash.
“I am confident that more dishonestly acquired land and cash will be returned to its rightful owners, the people of TCI,” he said.
Category: World News
Here! Please! Now!
Question for CNS…….. Do you have a percentagewise comparison between TCI's civil service workers and the Cayman Islands civil service workers?
CNS: No, but I will leave the question open in case one of our intrepid readers is inspired to research this.
The TCI used to have far too many civil servants. Now it has too many civil servants.
We have far far too many civil servants. Our civil service is two "far"s larger than the TCI civil service.
We therefore need to introduce a "far" reduction strategy and implement it twice.
Percentage comparison of what? Salaries, number of civil servants to population etc?
TCI has 2,500 civil servants. There are plans to cut 300 of them. http://www.suntci.com/index.php?p=story&id=2138
Cayman has 3,682 civil servants as at 1 January, 2010 according to the Miller Shaw Report.
Neithe the TCI nor CI figures includes employees of statutory authorities and govt. companies.
Cayman's population accordingto the 2010 census is 55,000 while TCI's is estimated at 33,000.
Compensation to civil servants represents 46% of govt. expenditure in Cayman as compared to 40% in Bermuda while in the TCI civil service compensation is estimated at between 60 and 65% of govt. revenue. The object in TCI is to reduce civil service costs to 45% of revenue.
TCI's GDP in 2008 was $700 million while in 2010 Cayman's was $2.3 billion. 2010 figures are not available for TCI but some estimates place it at about $400 million.
Cayman's civil service costs as a percentage of GDP is 15%.
I think this information belies the views of "Statistician" who claimed that relatively speaking Cayman has "far far" too many civil servants while TCI only has too many civil servants. They are both high but relatively speaking TCI's is much higher in comparison to GDP, population and total govt. expenditure.
Maybe we should watch this closely. Maybe we could learn something.
Downsizing? How about we start with the number of elected politicians. Instead of increasing it this year, let's decrease it by, say, 5.
The innocent ones who are feeling it, have every right to protest this lil cat and mouse game of special interest that has done little for them.
When will we start to reduce stagnant staff here? It is a shame how this Country went to hell under Civil Servants who retired with huge checks and monthly pensions. Dont worry the Public knows the hard workers. Ever since the days of those good ole working Cayman Brac Civil Servants Cayman went down the drain.One that we will all miss is our good ole Mr Dennis. He did what he thought wasright and forgot about rules and regulations.
You applaud someone who disregarded rules and regulations? I cannot respect that! I admire people who get things done by working hard and yes, being creative, but not flaunting the rules- this entiitlement to get and have at any cost instead of following rules IS the root of the problem in all of Cayman!
"He did what he thought was right and forgot about rules and regulations." Are you sure you're not talking about the Premier?
9:22 – Forgot about rules and regulations??? What kind of Civil Servant is that?