Improved Public Services

The level of economic and social progress that Antiguans and Barbudans will enjoy in the coming years will depend to a great extent on the quality services the Government and its agencies deliver to the taxpayers of this country. Upon coming to office in 2004, the UPP inherited a public sector that could best be described as an institution that was characterized by bureaucracy, inertia and ineffectiveness.

A comprehensive programme of public sector reform is required to get government workers and contractors to embrace the national culture of excellence that the UPP will continue to promote. During its second term, the UPP will broaden and deepen the public-sector reform efforts started in its first term.

The UPP Administration will therefore:

• Rationalize the number and size of ministries and redeploy human capital to traditionally understaffed functions such as health care and education, as well as small business development
• Promote optimal productivity by enhancing the work environments for public and quasi-public sector workers
• Provide competitive merit-based compensation so that the nation’s tax payers can be confident that they are receiving value for their tax dollars
• Facilitate continuing education, training, professional development and personal advancement for public and quasi-public sector workers
• Explore the introduction of employee assistance programmes to provide confidential, professional counseling services on a voluntary basis to assist public sector employees who are experiencing difficult personal, family or work-related problems
• Revamp human resources management policies and plans in which promotions, transfers and secondments are driven by merit, competence and other related performance criteria.

The UPP Administration will:

• Fast-track and intensify the renewal and modernization programme currently underway in the Customs & Excise Department.
• Craft and install a renewal and modernization programme at the Inland Revenue Department.
• Conduct organization and management analyses of key product and service delivery departments and undertake required departmental restructuring to improve the level and quality of service offered to the public
• Provide ongoing training in service excellence to front-line public sector employees
• Designate and publicize product and service-excellence “champions” in all government departments and get the “champions” to evangelize their workplaces
• Introduce the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in the delivery of public
  services