Over 600 public servants could possibly leave their posts in the next few years by retirement or otherwise.
Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Deputy Governor Sharleen Dabreo-Lettsome presented the facts on this matter at the launch of the Public Service Compensation Review.
She said, “Last year it was noted in Standing Finance that we have 300 public officers who are at the stage where they can retire and another 300 who are just at that 20-year mark. So we have a possibility of having an exit of 600 plus public officers in the next few years… This is quite a serious situation for us to consider and we must have ways of continuing to build capacity and ensuring that we are maintaining the level of quality public officers as we move forward”, she said.
Dabreo-Lettsome went on to explain that one of the issues with ensuring proper staffing of the public service is public discontent with the compensation packages currently in place for various roles.
She shared an experience of advertising for a senior post in the Deputy Governor’s Office and being met with criticism on social media.
“The comments were about the pathetic salary that is being paid to that position and considering the seniority of the post… the members from the private sector went on to say who does all that? That looks like 3 jobs in one”, she said.
This incident, she said, echoed the dire need for undertaking the Public Service Compensation Review.
Dabreo-Lettsome gave a brief explanation of the structure and expected results of the review.
“On the 27th of September, the Honourable Premier signed the contract allowing us to engage PriceWaterHouseCoopers out of Trinidad and Tobago to undertake a compensation review for the public service… The contract is valued at $302,103 and is expected to be concluded in 9 months and will produce a model for competitive levels of the public service – a classification system focusing on competencies and not just position and grade. It will create job families, a job classification or reclassification scheme and training of evaluators, a total reward scheme that enables base pay and variable pay such as allowances, performance bonuses and other benefits. Recommendations for how compensation will keep pace with inflation and market value and a total reward philosophy that consists of what we need and what we want as a modern public service”, she explained.
She also noted that moving forward a steering group and a working group from within the public service will be established to work alongside the consultants and will engage feedback from across the public service.