Almost one third of Caymans’ civil servants do not undergo annual performance appraisals, the deputy governor told members of the Legislative Assembly this week.
Donovan Ebanks, in response to a question about performance agreements and appraisals within the civil service from George Town MLA Kurt Tibbetts, said getting all civil servants appraised “remains the primary area of struggle and pursuit” in terms of ensuring compliance with the Public Service Management Law.
He said there was a 70 per cent rate of compliance on appraising public sector staff.
The issue arose during a late night Finance Committee meeting on Monday at which Members of the Legislative Assembly examined details of the 2011-2012 budget.
The deputy governor said there were a number of “distracting factors” that had led to the lack of compliance with the Public Service Management Law, including appraisal forms that were “too detailed and cumbersome”. Those forms had now been changed and a new electronic format was being developed, he said.
Another factor was that the assessments had “no influence on what happens the following day or what happens going forward,” said Mr. Ebanks, adding the appraisal results had no impact on remuneration or benefits of the civil servants.
He said responsibility for appraisals began at the governor’s level and there was a “cascading” system of appraisals from there down to the “lowest supervisor” and that he was responsible for assessing chief officers within the Civil Service.
Opposition member for East End Arden McLean asked the deputy governor who appraises the appraisers. “We are getting 70 per cent of that done, why isn’t the other 30 per cent done?” he asked.
Mr. Ebanks responded by saying that Civil Service was working towards reaching 100 per cent compliance, but he said the 70 per cent compliance was higher than it had been previously.
“It is not a question that it was 100 per cent and has now fallen to 70 per cent,” he said.
Ezzard Miller, independent member for East End, asked Mr. Ebanks if there was one person responsible for ensuring compliance with the Public Service Management Law. Mr. Ebanks said there were two tiers of compliance – he is responsible for ensuring chief officers are compliant and the chief officers are responsible for ensuring their staff are compliant with the law.
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Stop the bonuses, annual increments or cost-of-living increases of any appraising officer who has not done his appraisal by the due date. It is a very important part of any supervisor’s work.
Remember that the lack of appraisal data hinders full and proper examination of the merits of candidates for promotions (and discipline), so it can be unfair on a good candidate, as well as not bringing adequate data to bear on a poor candidate.
This is the reason there is no accountability within the core civil service. It would also be interesting for the powers that are responsible to comment on appraisals and evaluations at government owned companies such as Cayman Airways that are loosing funds daily….if the employees are not accountable, not motivated to behave in the best interest of the organization then how can a company perform well financially or achieve nationally set objectives. As Cayman Airways is the example it is widely understood that employees are not consistently evaluated, managers are not held accountable, apathy is rampant, favoritism is how people are managed and foreigners are intimidated with the fear of their work permits…no wonder the company is loosing money. Its a necessary part of our economy but needs to have proper management in place to run it.