Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines – Prime Minister Dr Godwin Friday has accused the former administration of creating a culture within the public service where civil servants felt unable to carry out their duties independently, saying many workers were forced to \u201clook over their shoulder\u201d before making decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking during an interview on NBC Radio about the proposed National Development Bank and wider government reforms, Friday said his administration is seeking to empower public servants and remove political interference from the functioning of government departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou know that the problem was in the past government?\u201d Friday said during the programme. \u201cThe public servants, they know what they\u2019re supposed to do. They know what their jobs are or were. But they weren\u2019t allowed to function properly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Prime Minister said workers in the public service often feared making professional decisions without political approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey always had to look over their shoulder to see if this is politically sanctioned,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when you do that, then you slow everything down because you can\u2019t do your work because you\u2019re never sure if you\u2019re going to run afoul of some minister in the government because you made a decision that they don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday said his government wants to create a more efficient and responsive public service by allowing workers to operate according to their professional judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI said to public servants, do your work,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce this is your professional judgment, do it, do it properly. You\u2019re not going to be micromanaged by your minister.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines – Prime Minister Dr Godwin Friday has accused the former administration of creating a culture within the public service where civil servants felt unable to carry out their duties independently, saying many workers were forced to \u201clook over their shoulder\u201d before making decisions. Speaking during an interview on NBC Radio about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n