United Nations Public Service Day was observed on June 23, 2022. This day was celebrated under the theme, “Building Back Better from Covid-19: Enhancing Innovative Partnerships to Meet the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Hon. Gretta Roberts, who is the Minister for Governance, Public Service Reform, Citizens Empowerment, Social Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, says this day is to highlight the contributions of the public service.
“Every year June 23rd is designated by the United Nations as a day to celebrate the value and virtue of public service to the community, to highlight the contribution of public service in the development process, to recognize the work of public servants and to encourage young people to pursue careers in the public sector,” Hon. Roberts stated.
Minister Roberts says this year’s theme is timely as covid-19 has impacted public institutions for the past two years.
“The 2022 United Nations Public Service Day commemoration celebrated this year on June 22nd is observed under the theme “Building Back Better from Covid-19; Enhancing Innovative Partnerships to Meet the Sustainable Development Goals.” For the past two years covid-19 has impacted public institutions and public officers around the world. Some have been affected by Covid-19 directly through illness or death and we have had to change the way we work and do business during the pandemic. During this period however, we have seen exceptional commitment from public officers in every sector, who have stepped up to directly and indirectly address the challenges faced from covid-19,” she noted.
The Governance Minister, during her address, thanked all the frontline workers who have played a vital role in the management of covid-19 in Dominica.
“Let me take this opportunity to thank all of our frontline workers and public officers who have helped us to navigate safely through this crisis. Your commitment and dedication to the challenge must be applauded,” Hon. Roberts went on to say.
Hon. Roberts says many lessons have been learnt to build back better after this pandemic. She says Government has taken stock of the lessons learnt during this pandemic. She says one of these lessons is the need to prioritize digital transformation in the public sector through innovation.
“Government is placing focus on the digitalization of services which result in services being more accessible to the public. We have already seen the beginning of the transformation in the health sector with several digital solutions built by our very own public officers during the pandemic such as the e-payment, online booking for covid testing, online travel approval and digital vaccine cards,” the Minister further noted.
As part of the vision for transformation and modernization of the public sector, the Government of Dominica is undertaking an organizational review and reclassification exercise within the public service.
“The organizational review and reclassification of the public service of Dominica is a multi-pronged and multi-phased initiative to provide a comprehensive analysis of the organizational structure of Ministries and departments and an evaluation of salaries and compensation structure. The exercise will strengthen and empower the public service to carry out its leadership role in Dominica’s climate resilience efforts and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as envisioned in Dominica’s National Resilience Development Strategy and the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan. We are at a critical juncture in the organizational review and reclassification exercise with the commencement of the job evaluation exercise,” Minister Roberts stated.
Over the next two weeks, a job evaluation committee, facilitated by a tea, of consultants from CARICAD will review and evaluate over two hundred and fifty benchmarked positions within the public service.
“This review will form the basis of proposals for compensation review and reclassification of positions. I must thank CARICAD, the dedicated team of public officers and all of the unions who are integrally involved in this important exercise,” Hon. Roberts added.