The Government has not yet crunched the numbers to determine how many jobs will be shaved as it rolls out the latest in a series of public sector transformation initiatives that have spanned various administrations, but Prime Minister Andrew Holness insists that there is no cause for panic.

Addressing State officials, members of the private sector and other stakeholders at a meeting at Jamaica House yesterday, at which he outlined the reinvigorated plans to overhaul the public sector, Holness stressed that in the instances where there will be job cuts, “it is not going to be a callous activity”. In fact, the aim of transformation is not to separate people from their incomes, he insisted.

He pointed out also that the number of entity mergers will not be significant. “The objective of public sector transformation is not to cut jobs. In the restructuring, yes, there will be some jobs that will have to be dismissed, but we are not going into this thing to slash the civil service… as mergers and closures occur and shared services are implemented, there will inevitably be some job displacements, but also there will be opportunities for growth and a more efficient government that delivers more with less,” he stated.

According to Holness, the aim is to make the public sector less of a burden on the public purse and the private sector by extension, so that the private sector will in turn be able to provide more jobs.

Holness stressed that the political directorate had skirted around the issue for too long, out of fear of touching public sector jobs, but that it was now time to face transformation head-on.

“Over 30 years we have been going through this process of public sector transformation, we have studied it till we are repeating ourselves. So transformation of the public sector should not be a surprise to anyone – the unions should not be surprised, the civil service should not be surprised, the public should not be surprised about public sector transformation. Now is the time to get it done; we have enough studies, enough history,” he asserted.

The prime minister noted that although public sector transformation was part of the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) never reported on it.

“Though much was achieved under the fiscal side, public sector transformation lacked so badly that EPOC didn’t even bother to report on it, but that was part of the IMF agreement. This time around, we have an exclusive monitoring body that will be focused on measuring outcomes,” he stated, in reference to the Public Sector Transformation Oversight Committee established by the Government and co-chaired by trade unionist Danny Roberts.

A public sector transformation implementation team has been set up to drive the process. It is led by Maria Thompson Walters and comprises professionals dedicated to ensuring that the agreed actions are implemented on time.

Prime Minister Holness outlined some of the immediate actions to be taken, such as the centralisation of corporate services across the 200 public bodies, which will start as of August this year. Others – some of which have begun – include mergers, divestments, outsourcing, and the closure of some agencies which have outlived their original purpose and have no new mandate but remain in the national budget.

He said also that there will be new rules for employment in the public sector. “It makes no sense that we go through this process of placing the public sector in order, only to have it go back to where we are coming from,” he said.

He pointed to some aspects of the programme that have already been implemented since his Administration took office in February, such as the merger of commodity boards, the divestment of Caymanas Track Limited, and the amalgamation of the Agricultural Credit Board and the Department of Cooperatives and Friendly Societies.

Holness further said that a census of employees in the sector is to be completed by March in order to give the Government a more accurate picture of the cost of the public sector.