By Trevor Thwaites (St. George's correspondent)

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada: The Isle of Spice has come in for high commendation from the World Bank for its efforts to modernize and reform the Public Service. The Bank’s Regional Representative, Ms Caroline Anstey, is particularly impressed with two areas of the reform programme – Procurement and Service Delivery, which she says are key, factors in the modernization of the Public Service. The World Bank official is pleased with the component of the project devoted to joint procurement, which seeks to collaborate with St Vincent and the Grenadines to secure good and services at more affordable prices.

“We hope that following on from that to bring in other OECS countries. This is an area where Grenada is very much in the lead by results on the ground, by showing very definitely what are the savings that can be garnered by doing things together.” Anstey is also encouraged by the Service Delivery aspect of programme. She said that Public Sector Modernization is not simply a good in terms of the savings that can be made where there are economies of scale.

The World Bank official indicated that the heart of Public Sector Modernization is the provision of better services faster, more efficiently with greater productivity to the people, who are the ones to be the judge of whether that reform is working well. “I am particularly pleased because first there a series of consultations in Grenada and the wider Caribbean about what people wanted to see reform and where they wanted to have better services. I am delighted to see as part of this project that there will customer scorecards, a chance for them to respond to areas of weaknesses, since that is an essential part not only of democracy, but of transparency, disclosure and moving to more efficiency.”

Anstey also praised the courage, determination and resilience of the Grenadian people, which she described as remarkable following the passage of two devastating hurricanes. “The fact that Grenada suffered a loss of some 200% of GDP and has come to this point of recovery, I think is a testimony to the resilience of the Grenadian people. I think it is a story that we need to spread far and wide.” She said that countries can learn a lot from Grenada in the recovery from disasters.
Anstey said that there is also need to enlighten countries as to the kind of structures to be erected for prevention and mitigation of disasters. She said that the World Bank on the request of regional countries is working on a Catastrophe Risk Insurance Tool, where risks will be pooled and there will be insurance for some public assets. “So that if a hurricane strikes you will not be dependent on the good will of donors whose attention fans are fickle, but you are able on an imbedded system to come forward with budget support quickly in times of disasters. What has been done in Grenada is not only remarkable, but it has been done by the people of Grenada.”