Three distinguished government workers were recently honoured as Civil Servants of the Year for the period 2019 to 2020 by First Heritage Co-operative (FHC) Credit Union in association with the Civil Service Week Steering Committee.

The presentations were made during the annual Civil Servants of the Year Award Ceremony to Candice Henry of the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard; Sophia Levy of the Administrator General’s Department and Celia Lindsay of the Jamaica Information Service.

The three civil servants were acknowledged for outstanding performance in the areas of technical support, middle management and management, respectively.

In addition to plaques and citations, the awardees received individual cash incentives of $200,000 courtesy of FHC Credit Union.

FHC’s renewed partnership with the annual Civil Service Week initiatives comes after last year’s hiatus of the Civil Servants of the Year Award.

“We have partnered with Civil Service Week initiative for the last 15 years. This year we have sponsored both the award ceremony and the charity 5K road race,” said Roxann Linton, CEO of FHC.

“We saw it fit to increase our involvement this year because of the important role civil servants play in the development of our nation. In fact, civil servants make up a large portion of our member base at FHC. We salute them all and think it imperative that we acknowledge outstanding efforts in three areas which we consider to be prudent to society,” added Linton.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke used the awards function to outline the role of civil servant and his commitment to aiding effectiveness in delivery.

“Your actions can lead to how people see the Government as an entity… your role is the most important role… without it we don’t have a State,” said Clarke.

“We are marching towards having the strongest public administration that we can imagine. With people who are technically proficient, who are sharp – because that is what it takes if we want Jamaica to achieve higher and higher levels of greatness. To get this requires action on the part of civil servants but it also requires action on the part of policy and Government and one of the things that I want to support is investing in,” added Clarke.