Madame Chair
Most Honourable Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, Former Governor-General of Jamaica
Executive Director and Other Board Members of the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD)
Professors Ralph Carnegie and Winston Anderson
Assistant Secretary-General LaRocque and other Distinguished Participants
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning and a warm and hearty welcome to you all to the CARICOM Headquarters. The Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community has frequently been referred to as the Region’s top public service officer. I have never been quite sure what that means. In any case, speaking for myself, I have enough responsibilities as it is for me to consider accepting the weight of the entire regional public services to add to them! What I do admit to, however, as head of the CARICOM Secretariat is that under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, with the Secretariat being the principal administrative organ of the Community, I take great pride in being its Chief Executive Officer and servant of the regional public.
In that context, notwithstanding the stresses and strains of the recently concluded Thirtieth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Community and today’s market crises, I could not see my way to refuse this request to address you – the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD), who have been tasked with the critical role of modernising the public sector in the Caribbean. This, even more so as your topic today melds two issues which are close to my heart, Regional Integration and the Public Service.
Just four days ago here in Guyana, the Heads of Government of the Community were engrossed in discussion over a number of matters which they expect would move the process of Regional Integration forward. On one of those key issues the Communiqué issued at the end of the Meeting stated as follows: “Heads of Government further agreed on the importance of training and sensitising Immigration Officers on the implementation of the Region’s approach to free movement and hassle free travel.”
I use that illustration to highlight the fact that public service officials, public officers if you may, are at the forefront of the integration arrangements. They are truly in a position to make a difference, negative or positive, to the implementation of the decisions of Heads of Government. This makes the role of CARICAD all the more critical and empowers your Mission of “Improving Government for the People of the Caribbean”, thereby giving meaning to the following provisions of Article 76 (c) of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas: “COTED shall promote the modernisation of Government bureaucracies by, inter alia, encouraging cost effectiveness in the delivery of services to the public.”
Madame Executive Director, your Organisation started some 29 years ago on its monumental task of transforming and modernising the public sector in the Caribbean. Along the way, in keeping with your modernising mandate, you have been given the responsibility for the promotion of e-government, to complement e-commerce, one of the built-in agenda items referred to in Article 239 of the Revised Treaty, as a vehicle for Public Sector Modernisation. I refer to e-government primarily because in the context of Regional Integration, the enhancement of the ability of our public sector to communicate effectively with each other is at the core of the contribution that the sector can make to the advancement of regional integration. The increased use of technology which, among other things, would enable this effective communication has been recognised as one of the main drivers of the 21st century Community by our Heads of Government.
I am therefore, pleased to note that your organisation has enunciated a Caribbean e-government strategy 2009-2012 as part of a wider e-governance project and importantly, the introduction to that document states: “e-Government has the greatest potential to revolutionize the performance of government and revitalize democracy. E-Government can fundamentally recast the connection between people and their government and between Governments of the region. It can make government far more responsive to the needs of the people and greatly improve transactions between them.”
However, Ladies and Gentlemen, as important as the technology undoubtedly is in connecting our Region, the key core factor is the human resource. Unless there is a commitment to the idea of Regional Integration by the people on the front line, no amount of technology will move the process forward.
Two critical words in the quotation from the recent Communiqué of Heads of Government must be emphasised – training and sensitisation. These do not apply only to immigration officers but to all public officers. The sensitisation to the decisions taken and training in how to implement them, are the professional elements but there is also the human element which requires an understanding of the vital importance of integration for our survival and prosperity. Our quest for a viable, prosperous, secure and sustainable Community for All requires all hands on deck.
The public service must be made aware of their integral role in advancing the objectives and implementing the decisions of the Community. The Secretariat and the regional institutions have their role in facilitating and co-ordinating but cannot implement at the national level. Whether it is in agriculture, free movement, contingent rights, security, investment, rights of the child or examinations, implementation remains the province of the Member State.
There must be an understanding and acceptance that the national goals are not distinct from the Community’s goals and, that there is no contemplation of replacing national public services with a gigantic regional public service. The objective is for a seamless space that will strengthen the parts to ensure a solid and stronger whole. To achieve that, the national public services across the Community, should all be operating on the same basic principles in the conduct of their duties.
CARICAD’s work should therefore be instrumental in establishing that coherence among your principal stakeholders which could only redound to the benefit of the integration process and therefore to the Community as a whole. In that regard, I note that you have been closely involved with other Community Agencies and Institutions, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) Unit of the Secretariat and soon, the OTN which like you, are based in Barbados. There is no doubt that this close collaboration, which I have observed, results from the work that you have been doing with the public services of the Region, and given the high degree of inter-ministerial coordination which is necessary at the national level, to implement the provisions of the CSME.
I am advised also that some of the activities that have been undertaken in collaboration with the CSME Unit include Joint Missions to Member States to facilitate sensitisation and consultation; Partnering on the implementation of the Public Education Programme and most importantly, membership of the Project Steering Committee for the CSME Component of the CARICOM-Canada Trade and Competitiveness Project – a project which deals with administrative reform. I look forward to this continued collaboration and urge that there be cohesion as a structured and agreed upon approach is critical to the success of this project.
I recall that in this very room last July 31, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between CARICAD and the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) which among other things, catered for the training of immigration officers, one of the measures mentioned in the recent Communiqué of the Conference of Heads of Government. This will become even more relevant given the imminent introduction of the CARIPASS.
Your Excellency, Distinguished Professors, Madame Executive Director, Board Members, participants, all in closing I would like to leave you with the thoughts of an elder statesman of the Caribbean Community to guide you during your seminar and beyond: “regional economic integration is an imperative; the assertion of our united voice as sovereign nations in the global arena singing from the same hymn sheet is the only way for any of us to be heard in the global din. As a result, our own national self-interest demands that we widen, deepen and strengthen the Caribbean Community. There simply is no other way out especially in these rough and perilous times.”
So said the Most Honourable Percival J. Patterson and so say I.
I thank you.