CIVIL SOCIETY CONSULATION GROUP
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EAST HILL STREET

18TH November 2004

 I have come here this evening to put my stamp of approval on the effort toward public sector reform. I have been a servant of the public since 1974 when I was first appointed to the Senate. I have served in the House of Assembly for a generation.  I have had the honour to be a Minister in many portfolios. I have served as the Chair of many statutory corporations and bodies. I believe I know a little bit about how the public sector operates.  I have therefore some firm views about how the public sector needs to be reformed, if our country is to advance.

 The effort toward public sector reform though must be structured in such a way that we are charting careful course of change, not approaching this willy-nilly without any clear idea of where we are headed. But we must be committed to real change.
 I wish to list the areas that I have unidentified and to which the Government is lending its full support

--Improvement in the capacity of the Government for policy design and decision-making…
--Monitoring the implementation of cabinet decisions…
--Support to the further development of e government…
--Creation of a public assets management system…
--Rationalization of human resources and personnel policies…
--Effective Information Dissemination and Communication within the sector and with the wider public.

I have come here tonight in part to listen because I think that the private sector must buy into the need for change.  While we are discussing how to more effectively dispense public goods and services, we ought to know how this impacts the public at large, of which you of civil society are an integral part.  What is that you think need to be done? I want to know.

 I am also here to seek your support for change. Change is not easy but there must be change. We must all be willing to change.

 Finally for now, I want to be sure that there is a broad consensus built around how we reform the public sector:  Whether and if this means changes in how we hire and who we hire, changed institutional arrangements, resorting to more private sector approaches to Government work.  Do we for example borrow the approaches of other countries where Ministries operate as public corporations? I look forward to the discussions.