Powi: Institutionalise public service machinery

 THE implementation of government policies will continue to be a problem if the public service is not institutionalised, Parliament was told yesterday.

Southern Highlands Governor William Powi said this during debate on a ministerial statement by Public Service Minister Sir Puka Temu in Parliament yesterday.

“We should not be looking at ourselves as makers and doers but institutionalise the public service machinery so they are prepared to implement our policies and deliver services as expected of them,” Powi said. 

He said for too long the policy makers and the public service machinery had been running parallel to suit their needs and not addressing the real issue by looking at the front line implementers’ functions.

He added that the public service had suffered from a ‘distorted governance syndrome’ with too many policies to suit the needs of policy makers, which had not addressed the issue of effective public service delivery.

“This year is a year of implementation and if the government wants to see the public service machinery work, it should now look at the front line implementers such as health workers and teachers who are the backbone of the service delivery by increasing their pay and conditions,” he said.

Powi said the public service remuneration package should be revisited and set strategic framework to make it a robust and strong public service to implement policies.