Mariano Browne
Periodically topical issues often expose a glaring weakness which was previously overlooked. Last week’s announcement by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to discontinue one of the several corruption cases which arose out of the construction of the new airport provided such an opportunity. In a follow-up radio interview, the DPP noted that the department was so perilously understaffed that it could lead to a collapse of the country’s criminal justice system.
The DPP has warned of being short-staffed in the past and of the potential consequences. He noted that the department had approximately 58 prosecutors but needed 129, describing the problem as “acute and chronic…any time you reach a stage where the number of courts outnumbers the number of prosecutors, that must be an area of concern.”
In February, he referred to Cabinet Minute 1450, approved on May 29, 2013, which proposed a new organisational structure for the DPP’s department, adding 79 more attorneys.
In addition, prosecutors have been promoted to the bench whilst others have left for other presumably more lucrative positions. Recently, the Chief Justice, head of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) which is responsible for recruiting and promoting legal staff and judges, commented that DPP staff should be fully deployed notwithstanding the challenges.
This must be an uncomfortable arrangement. The Chief Justice has often noted that the backlog of cases is unmanageable as the number of cases will take many years to be concluded, even without the new ones being added to the backlog. Yet, as Chairman of the JLSC, the Chief Justice ought to be able to address the resource shortfall. Why should it take ten years to get the job done? What is the problem? If the legal fraternity is overstaffed, as suggested in some quarters, why are the approved job positions still unfilled? Are there too few applicants? If yes, why is that? Is the recruitment process too cumbersome or complicated?
The finance minister has indicated that the country’s finances have recovered allowing this matter to be treated with urgency and sensitivity. Underresourced and overworked staff make for poor working conditions and demoralised staff. This is the context in which the operating practices have been characterised as personnel administration rather than human resource management and lead to suboptimal outcomes.
In such an environment any shortfall in market compensation factors makes the recruitment process more difficult. There must be efficiency and competitiveness in the compensation policy if one is to attract and retain talent.
The 2017–2020 Green Paper on Transforming the Civil Service asserts that it is difficult to retain experienced professional and managerial staff in the civil service. To overcome this challenge, certain technical positions (eg, engineers and IT) have been granted ad hoc professional allowances. This has led to civil servants applying for leave of absence to take up other higher paying jobs in other areas of the service when possible. Also, contract officers have been recruited from outside the public service on fixed-term contracts with pay levels outside the approved salary ranges/scales. Both measures have contributed to inequitable distortions and feelings of injustice which helps to destabilise the working environment. These distortions have been exacerbated by the cumulative history of low-pay settlements/union negotiations over the years.
The Chief Personnel Officer’s (CPO) department is responsible for advising and negotiating pay and terms and conditions of service for the recognised bargaining units which constitute the various branches of the public service. The department is in the Ministry of Public Administration. However, as lead consultant and negotiator on behalf of the GORTT, the CPO’s office is guided by the finance ministry, to develop a holistic and affordable approach to the bargaining process. In practice, the CPOs must incorporate the projected impact of any negotiation position on the sustainability of the government’s fiscal operations. The emphasis is on affordable and sustainable, as government must exercise the responsible fiscal discipline necessary to keep the Government’s finances on an even keel. This information can only come from the budget division of the Ministry of Finance which is responsible for managing the public finances.
The last negotiated settlement covered the period from January 2011 to December 2013. Therefore, there have been no agreed wage settlements for the nine years from January 2014 to December 2022. The CPO’s negotiation position published following the 2022 mid-year budget review contained several “zeros” meaning that no increase was contemplated for much of the period. This has happened several times before, the cumulative effect of which is to ensure that civil service salaries are well below competitive market prices.
This has reduced the attractiveness of the public service as a career and limits the capacity to recruit the best and the brightest into the civil service. While salaries need not be exactly equal to private sector wage rates, neither should they be substantially lower. The point is simple. Civil service performance must be of a high standard if the country is to progress. To perform at its best, the service must attract, retain and challenge talent. Current civil service salaries do not help achieve this result.
The writer is the current Chief Executive Officer of The UWI Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business.