Opposition Leader Godwin Friday says “there’s going to be a real shift in the way in which the public service functions” under a New Democratic Party (NDP) administration.
“Nowadays, you can’t do anything unless you know what the political affiliation is,” he said on Hot 97 FM on Monday, adding, “It’s that sort of problem: they know what their job is, but they can’t do it because they’re waiting to hear if they’re affecting the wrong person.
“Get rid of that. Because the public service is a professional organisation. I want them to be professional,” he said, “I want them to advise me, to advise my ministers in a professional way; not partisan,” he said.
Friday’s comments came as he announced four policies that will be implemented if the NDD wins the Nov. 27 general election, including one that will see people receiving 50% off the duty on a vehicle if they work in the public sector for 10 years or more.
“I don’t ask people about their affiliation, how they vote. I don’t even ask them — now, in the current time, the most I might ask is if you’re registered, but I don’t even ask that,” he opposition leader said.
Friday said that if elected to office, he does not want everyone coming to him as prime minister, adding that he wants a Public Service in which public servants just do their jobs.
“… and they don’t have to look over their shoulder. All they have to say is, ‘Minister, this is what it says I’m supposed to do, and that’s what I did. If you don’t like that, go and take it up with the people who write this law, don’t come to me about it.’
“And they are protected. The minister can’t say, ‘Well, look, I’ll send you to someplace else’, because they have to go through me first. I am not going to allow that to happen in government.
“Because when that happens, all of us suffer because the people are not efficient and not producing. They’re not doing the things that taxpayers are paying them to do because they feel that their hand is tied behind their backs. We have to get rid of that because we are a modern country. We aspire to be more than that, some people.
“But the point is that we are not going to get the best out of our public servants, and they are some of the best trained people, best educated people.”
He cited the Ministry of Agriculture, which has “some of the most highly-educated, skilled people, ready to work, want to do something.
“And they’re just sitting around waiting for a minister every Monday morning to come and tell them they will be sending a container of something next week to someplace else, with no real strategy as to how.
“Say, ‘Listen, guys, this is how we’re going to revitalise agriculture. Advise me what is the most effective way you think we can get there? We have set the policy. Tell me how we get there.’
“And no idea is off the table, because I’m open to that.”
Friday said his colleagues would say that when there is a meeting, he is sometimes the last person to speak.
“Because I want to hear what people have to say. And I learn a lot from that,” he said.
Friday, who has been representing the Northern Grenadines since 2001, is making his second bid to lead the NDP to victory after it was voted out of office in March that year.
His first attempt in 2020 failed even as the party won the popular vote for the first time since 1998 but lost another seat to the Unity Labour Party, which romped home to a fifth term in office with a 9-6 margin.