Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said civil service reforms that took effect this year were not crafted with the goal of cutting jobs.
‘There are, in my view…layers of bureaucracy that need to be seriously looked at, absolutely,’ Mr. Tibbetts said during a Friday press briefing. ‘But I don’t think that has to do with downsizing or anything.’
‘I’m absolutely certain that the law was not crafted to bring about that result.’
Recent changes to Cayman Islands Civil Service Law allow government managers more control over their own departments and will eventually institute a performance-based pay system for employees.
Under the amended law, performance evaluation forms will help managers determine productivity levels. High performance could, by 2009, lead to one-time bonuses equalling up to 10 per cent of government worker’s yearly salary.
Low performance levels could lead to a variety of remedial measures including decisions to withhold funds from a department until it produces the expected outputs.
At the annual meeting of the Cayman Islands Civil Service Association last week, a workers’ organisation representative said the new law carries an underlying threat of downsizing.
‘We want to make sure that civil servants’ jobs are secure,’ said association Vice President Christen Suckoo.
Government workers said the changed law also sets up an adversarial relationship between managers and their employees. They are worried about office politics and favouritism determining who gets raises and promotions.
Mr. Tibbetts has said the old Civil Service Law often created a situation where salary didn’t relate to a worker’s responsibility.
‘I think the two words that we need to be pointing everything in the direction of is efficiency and accountability,’ he said. ‘I do not believe that is something that any civil servant should be wary of.’
Mr. Suckoo noted something employees are wary of is that several government departments have not created programmes for succession planning, which is the required training and promotion of Caymanians to as many senior government positions as possible.
‘There are people who are not helping this process. If there is not one (a succession plan) in place, you should have one,’ Mr. Suckoo told the audience at the Civil Service Association meeting. ‘We have to force it to happen.’
Chief Secretary George McCarthy’s office is responsible for overseeing the implementation of government-wide succession training.
Mr. McCarthy said during a meeting of the Legislative Assembly in December that there were no non-Caymanians holding any of the senior positions in government at that time.
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