DG’s minutes reveal bureaucratic ironies
(CNS): The latest short record of the civil service bosses’ meeting with the deputy governor have revealed the ironies of bureaucracy. During the high level weekly meeting on 15 July the chief officers discussed the issue of red tape and bureaucracy. According to the minutes, a Cabinet paper submitted on 16 July requested that government reviews the business processes carried out and the information provided by government departments with a view to eliminating administrative burdens that act as a disincentive to new businesses start-ups or that is harmful to existing businesses. The discussion on the review comes after an agenda item entitled "Final Report of the Committee to Review Reports".
The issue of government reports and reviews gathering dust on shelves or disappearing among the corridors of government is a long running criticism of government as few of the costly reports ever develop into effective policies.
According to the record of the meeting, the report on the reports requires changes to be made to the Public Management and Finance Law, an issue that has been in question for several years. However, so far no significant changes have been made to the law, which the auditor general has described as being too complicated for the local government.
The report on the reports committee is also working towards including recommendations from the Turnbull Report in their final report, the minutes record.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet paper on reviewing red tape for businesses, with the goal of a greater focus on technology, administrative simplification and a business friendly climate that exceeds customer expectations had led to the creation of another committee, which CO’s Eric Bush and Dax Basdeo have been asked to sit on.
The minutes revealed that the senior public servants also discussed the Cabinet recommendation to review the Public Authorities Bill, the forthcoming budget and the need to keep general ledgers up to date.
See the latest deputy governor’s meeting minutes below.
Category: Politics
Is this meant to be some kind of joke? I hope that the new Goverrnor will put this man to do real work for his pay and stop all of this time wasting. If these minutes are a reflection of the work performed then she needs to reassess this job, period.
Why do you call and effort to improve customer service a joke??. I think the joke is on you!
Those minutes are a complete joke and an insult to the concept of transparency.
I have to say that I really don't get it. Everything the Civil Service does is wrong yet we depend on them everyday. You ask for more transparency- the DG's publishes minutes of meeting- a watershed decision- but we say its a joke???? I now know more about whats happening in Government that I ever did. Thank you DG. The Civil Service finally decides to dust off reports that have been on the shelf for years and take the necessary steps to implement their recommendations- you poke fun at a title?? Shame on you. But the most embarrarsing move is to complain that the civil service is trying to exceed our expectations and we thing thats stupid, Are you crazy. Dont we want work permits process in days when we expect weeks? Dont we want pay all fees online?? This complaning for the sake of compaining has become a joke.
What can one say? Simply put! "They have all reached their level of incompetence". Listen to the following:
They [the committee] are setting a goal to "create a business friendly climate that exceeds customer expectations" [quote unquote] Are you kidding me? Please explain how you plan to do that. Why not just set goals to give good efficient service, thats all people expect.
You see folks these are some of the reasons why nothing gets done in our Government. There is too much bureaucracy and too much incompetence, and too many Inflated Egos. And much too much time wasted in committees that waste precious time on things like:
The "FINAL REPORT of THE COMMITTEE to REVIEW REPORTS". And I'll venture to say that that report, was not, The Final Report of The Committee to Review Reports.
It's truly laughable!
Fact is, no one in government wants to end the bureaucracy, otherwise most would be out of a job. Why else would you have to fill out this application accompanied with this document from another department, to be reviewed by this agency before it goes over to this board for final approval, bla, bla, bla. All those civil servants have to do something!
An efficient government would not require 25% of the local population to run it. Then all those unneeded people would be unemployed and collecting a check from Social Services. Sadly, this is what government has created and no politician has the political courage to change it.
This is why we need term limits for MLA's. This would allow them to do what is right instead of what is popular. These career politicians are only interested in getting reelected again, and have no interest in fixing a broken system.
The "Final Report of the Committee to Review Reports?" A shocking example of government bumbing, ineptitude, and make work time wasteing which should be referred posthaste to the Committee to Review Committees for review and report.
In reading this article, I am reminded of Ross Pierot, when he ran for the U.S. Presidency. He gave a hypothetical situation describing how government works. He said, if a Government dept. hears of a dangerous snake on the loose, he calls a meeting with the various heads; they then decide to establish a committee who should meet to review, discuss and report back on their findings. They in turn set up a couple of sub-comittees who are given the same tasks. The subcommittees meet, report back to the main committee, who then reports to the Boss. By that time the snake has multiplied and they now have no idea what to do about the growing problem, which has spread throughout the country. However, when Ross Pierot sees the snake, he "kills the damned thing"!!
Man, we could sure use a few Ross Pierots around here!
Perhaps Cabinet should turn this whole thing on its head.
Rather than ask the civil service tolead the review of the Statutory Authorities Bill, instead the Cabinet should appoint a review group comprising board members from the 3 CIG entities that comply with the Public Management and Finance Law and board members from 2 entities that do not comply. Having completed that review (and after the LA has passed any amending legislation required) then that same review group should oversee the implementation.
Having set a more sensible overarching framework, Cabinet should swiftly move on to the proposed review of the Statutory Authorities Bill. The statutory and CIG-owned entities are a mixed bag and a one-size-fit-all approach will likely set the stage for further errors. Unless persons with outside-of-government experience also lead this other review, CIG will oversee yet another failure. I am not suggesting that civil servants should not serve on this other review group but only that these persons should not lead the review of this Bill. In fact, the civil service should form a critical technical support and advisory function for both review groups.
Final suggestion, please set a deadline and stick to it – 8 years of non-compliance is getting old. Don't expect those persons that contributed to failure to (on their own) lead us out of failure – they truly need help.