Ministry and Portfolio Funding No Longer Automatic
Facilitator Rod Waddell (left) with Peter Gough
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Ministries and portfolios of the Cayman Islands Government will no longer
receive automatic funding from the Cabinet unless they can demonstrate to their
Minister or Official Member that they have delivered their agreed outputs or
services, it was announced this week.
The change is a part of the “Payment on Delivery” concept introduced on 1
July to improve Government performance.
The staff performance scheme applies from the top to the bottom of the
organization. The Chief Secretary, Attorney General and the Financial Secretary
have performance agreements with the Governor, which cascade down through chief
officers, heads of departments and section heads, to every staff member.
Officials noted that while this may be a new concept for governments
worldwide, it is normal commercial business practice.
Introducing the scheme in Government puts the Cayman Islands among the world
leaders in public sector reform.
The Public Service legislation comes into effect on 1 July 2005, giving the
Civil Service a year to practice the new performance management system before it
becomes mandatory.
The Director of the Budget and Management Support Unit (BMU), Peter Gough,
stated, “The new budget process, and the way each ministry, portfolio,
department and unit is now funded, is the main driver for developing a new staff
management scheme to improve the performance of the Civil Service.”
Preparations for this change were made during a series of internal training
initiatives. In the first round of workshops, arranged by the Personnel Training
Unit, 130 civil service managers, including those on the Brac, were provided
with management tools to establish, monitor and assess performance of their
staff.
It was agreed at the various workshops that the new Payment on Delivery
concept would act as a powerful incentive to ensure that the performance of
civil servants would now focus on the delivery of agreed outputs because
non-delivery would mean no funding.
During the workshops, Civil Service managers learned how to establish
performance expectations for their staff, what personal behaviours will be
required of employees, and how to develop required skills in the staff they
manage. Managers were also trained to assess staff performance throughout the
year and to deal with good and poor performers.
Mr Gough said, “The new staff performance scheme is a tool that managers will
use to ensure that outputs that Cabinet and other agencies have funded will be
delivered in an efficient and cost-effective way.”
Although the new public service legislation will make it mandatory to have
performance arrangements in place, it is a flexible system that will allow
ministries/portfolios to tailor it to suit their own needs.
“Improving the performance of the Customs Department requires a different
approach to improving the performance of the Public Works Department. It is
important that all staff members know what is expected of them and how their
contributions will benefit the delivery of outputs,” Mr Gough said.
Back...
Click
here for reader comments...
| 
