TCI Deputy Governor statement on Public Service Productivity and Efficiency Audit

#Grand Turk, January 13, 2019 — As a part of our mandate to continue to improve service delivery across the public service, included in the Office of the Deputy Governor’s Budget and Key Programme Strategies for 2019/2020, was the commissioning of a Public Service Productivity and Efficiency Audit in the 4^th Quarter of the financial year.

The purpose of the audit as outlined in the Budget Speech in May 2019 and further reiterated in the Speech from the Throne in November 2019 was to work towards improving public service programme performance by undertaking an overarching review of the numerous reforms that were implemented over the years in public procurement, public service management and public financial management amongst others to determine the effectiveness of those reforms; whether they have improved productivity across the service or whether additional or other types of resources including, but not limited to investments in systems, are required to further improve the delivery of the public service.

The audit was designed to identify strengths and weaknesses in the public service and to make recommendations to close those gaps to further improve service delivery.

As outlined in the open tender that was publicly released on November 14^th, 2019, the purpose of the audit was to also identify additional key and priority staff to fulfill the mandate of the government, which is holistically different from the review conducted in 2012 that was financially driven and was aimed at reducing the cost and size of the public service at a time when public service cost stood at over 50% of monthly revenue intake.

As public service costs since 2012 has been well managed within the ratio of less than 40% of government revenue, additional post have been budgeted each year since 2012 and the public service has continued to enjoy the full restoration of previous benefits and the introduction of new benefits including:  the return of their previous 10% cut in pay 2012; the implementation of a new pay and grading review with new grade structures amounting up to as much as a 30% increases in pay for some staff in 2014; a further 2.5% across the board salary increase in 2015; the launching of a Professional Development Fund reserved for scholarship and professional development opportunities for local staff in 2016; the reinstatement of increments ranging in increases of 2%-4% based on performance in 2019 and numerous other ongoing work programs.

Two bids were received for the above tender, which regrettably were well above budget and are still being reviewed, but we remain committed to carrying out this work even if in the next financial year which will be beneficial to the civil service and people of these islands that require efficient public services.

Positively, the contract for the Review of Pensions and Gratuities was successfully awarded and commenced in December 2019 through the engagement of Morneau Shepell who traveled to the islands in December to collect data and to meet with key officials on the development and costing of a new pension and or gratuity program in the Turks and Caicos Islands.  We will further update on this work is slated to be completed before the end of the financial year, as we continue to work to the benefit of civil servants in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

TCIG PRESS RELEASE ISSUED JANUARY 10, 2020