By Trevor Thwaites ( Sr. George's correspondent)


ST.GEORGE's, Grenada: Grenada has received more assistance for the creation of a more effective and efficient Public Service. The Public Sector Management Improvement Project, (PSMIP) funded by the British Government to tune of close to $3million, which began in March of 2003, comes an end next month. However, as the PSMIP comes to an end, efforts are being made to further enhance the services offered by the public sector, with the soon to come on stream Public Sector Modernization Programme (PSMP).

Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell last week signed an Agreement with the World Bank in Washington to help boost the country’s Public Sector Modernization Programme. Officials of the Department of Human Resources (DHR) say that despite the efforts of the PSMIP and other reform initiatives, there still remain some fundamental public sector weaknesses that are affecting the public service – including weak organizational capacity and public sector performance, weak fiduciary oversight, diseconomies of scale and limited capacity of the private sector and the role of the public sector.

As such government has negotiated with World Bank for technical assistance in the areas of – the commercialization and outsourcing of select public sector services and improvements in the public sector’s institutional structure. Other areas include human resources management, procurement and economic practices to yield reduced costs and quicken the pace of growth opportunities. According to the DHR, 85% of people surveyed in the business sector have identified Public Sector Reform (PSR) as a pre-requisite for future growth and development.

The project consists of four components – Executive Agencies and Performance Management, Strengthening the country’s Industrial Development Corporation, Regional Initiatives and Strengthening of the Public Sector Reform Unit. The government sees public sector reform as improving the way it does business, enhancing opportunities for public officers and delivering better service to nationals. It also seeks to raise awareness among it citizens of better service from all its ministries, speedy service, customer choice and value for money.
The Department of Human Resource in the Prime Minister’s Ministry says that the project will benefit nationals by improving the quality of services provided as well as enhancing economic opportunities for small and micro businesses through training by the Grenada Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC). “It will also provide the government with the necessary tools to ‘right size’ public sector function,” the DHR said.