Senior Reporter
andrea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt
President Christine Kangaloo says the pandemic has shown the importance of digitalisation of services and innovation must be within the public service.
She made the comment at the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) sixth edition of the President’s Awards for Innovation and Service Excellence (Pr.A.I.S.E) for the public sector awards ceremony on Tuesday.
She said COVID-19 pushed institutions to rethink their strategies and come up with new ways of doing business.
“The World Public Sector Report 2023 puts it this way: capitalising on successful institutional innovations undertaken during the pandemic could … make public institutions more effective and resilient to shocks, more participatory and inclusive, more forward-looking and able to steer societal change, and makes them more transparent and accountable. There can be no doubt that this is the direction in which our public institutions need to go. Bolstering the public sector in this way will only redound to our nation’s benefit,” the President stressed.
Her Excellency believed that competitions like this one go a long way towards revitalising the public sector, and debunking the negative stereotypes and opinions that are sometimes visited upon the public service in TT.
She noted that public servants are often all tarred with the same negative brush, even though within the service, there are to be found some of the brightest, most able, hardest-working, and conscientious individuals in the country.
“When I was growing up, working for the public service was a badge of honour and a privilege. I believe that it still is. And I believe that interventions like this competition will help to make it even more so.”
President Kangaloo challenged those at the top of the public service to follow the lead of the competition and seek out ways of creating environments conducive to innovation and service excellence.
“I encourage you to reward out-of-the-box thinking and support initiatives that promise to revamp outdated or inefficient processes ... And I exhort you to strain every sinew to ensure that no stone is left unturned to create and to support an eco-system of innovation and service excellence,” said the President.
Carina Cockburn, IDB country representative told the award ceremony, “These prestigious awards continue to be highly competitive and present an opportunity for recognition and acknowledgment of excellent work being done in the public sector. Often, we only highlight the challenges the public sector may face in delivering products and services to citizens. These awards seek to motivate and encourage public entities to keep innovating and providing invaluable service to the people of T&T.”
The winner in the Innovation category was the Ministry of Digital Transformation with the project “The Developer’s Hub” (D’Hub).
The Service Excellence category went to The Legal Aid and Advisory Authority, Public Defenders’ Department, and the Vanguard Award went to the Financial Literacy Unit, Division of Finance and the Economy, Tobago House of Assembly (THA).
Also, the People’s Choice Award went to the Children’s Authority for innovation, while the National Information Communications Technology Company (iGovTT) received the People’s Choice Award for Service Excellence.