EDITOR, The Tribune.

TEN, fifteen, twenty years. That’s the amount of time it takes for some hardworking, dedicated public servants to receive their first promotion.

There’s no avoiding the fact that we’ve all had an interaction or two with public servants, who lack the skills and ambition to be public servants, much less deserve a promotion.

However, we should never use these experiences to cast generalisations which apply to the entire public service. We must remember that the Public Service consist of thousands of officers, some of whom operate daily without any public interaction, ensuring that our schools, clinics and offices function efficiently.

In 99 percent of those negative experiences, the root cause stems from incompetence within management.

Far too often, persons are elevated to the posts of supervisors and managers, when they lack the capacity to be considered “line staff”.

In a business, a person who does not perform in a position is not left in place to further dismantle and disrupt the division, instead they are placed in a position where they are better suited.

No one would put a plumber in a position where a lawyer is needed, and expect him to function efficiently. That’s madness.

I can proclaim with absolute certainty that there are many hardworking, dedicated, committed and knowledgeable employees throughout the service because I am one of them.

However, far too often those are the ones never promoted, considered or appreciated.

Ask yourself this, if you worked assiduously for an organisation and never received a promotion in 10,15,20 years, how motivated would you be? What is your motivation to work even harder?

Some public servants have been known to act so long in positions that they are considered “Senior Actors”, in the post. Take for instance, the female officer of the Royal Bahamas Police Force who caused a major uproar between the Minister of National Security and the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Parliament last month. This officer was acting for so long, that when she was promoted this year, it had to be made retroactive to 2014.

That’s highly unfair to that officer, who I am sure worked tirelessly and was deserving of that promotion, a long time ago.

When you inquire about situations where officers are acting without pay or consideration, the response is often, “they lack the qualification”. Then, in the cases where the officer is qualified, the response is “we lack the funding to pay for the qualification”. If we plan to follow this model, how do we ever expect to attract and hold the best and brightest within the public service?

If we are truly serious about uplifting, equipping and modernising the Public Service, we must first look at investing in its most valuable asset, its “Human capital”, by encouraging and promoting the development of all Public Servants.

Two things I would advise all public servants to do:

1) Join the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU), which will act as your defence against any wrongful action, while fighting for better conditions of service.

2) Get yourself a copy of the “Bahamas Government Human Resource Policies Manual”, which was revised in 2017. This document outlines the rules and terms of your employment.

A public servant who is knowledgeable, is powerful. It’s available online for free, get it.

Stop accepting from the Public Service what they will not accept from you, that is mediocrity. Those that govern us, should also be governed. Those that assess us, should also be assessed.

One of the many dedicated Servants of The Public.

DEDICATED SERVANT

Nassau,

July 15, 2018.