Minister for Public Service, Joe Sungi wants the Human Resource recruitment process of public servants to be digitalized.
The Minister said this when he met with the Public Service Commission Commissioners and Secretariat Staff.
Minister Sungi, his vice Minister Hon. Salio Waipo accompanied by Department of Personnel Management Secretary Ms. Taies Sansan held a meeting with Public Service Commission Commissioners and Staff on Friday (14th May).
The meeting was purposely for the Minister to meet the Commissioners and staff of PSC as an agency that comes directly under the Public Service Ministry.
Since taking office Minister Sungi conducted similar engagements with the Department of Personnel Management and the Pacific Institute of Leadership and Governance but due to the recent covid -19 restrictions was unable to meet with PSC until the meeting he had with the PSC Commissioners and staff on Friday.
They were welcomed by the Chairman for Public Service Commission, Apeo Fuata Sione. In welcoming them Commissioner Sione said, his commissioners and the staff of the Secretariat were delighted to meet with the Minister for Public Service and to hear his plans for PSC.
Minister Sungi, in addressing the Commissioners and the staff told them that the Public Service Commission is a very important organization and the most important thing is to see where the issues are that the organization face and work towards addressing them.
Minister Sungi spoke about a number of areas that he would want to see improve and notable among them is the need to improve the Human Resource recruitment process and have it digitalized.
He said, the process of recruitment for entry and exit into the public service must be digitalized as it will ease a lot of burden on the review process by PSC when aggrieved public servants lodge their documents for review when a disciplinary action is taken against them.
The Minister made these remarks in light of the huge number of reviews that public servants lodge with PSC. He said, the need to find a more efficient process to deal with such matters would require digitization of this HR process.
The Public Service Minister further stated that there is an urgent need for those in supervisory roles in line government agencies to ensure the process of appraising staff is done diligently to avoid the gaps in the system that eventually contribute to the rise in matters ending up at PSC.
‘For every Public Servant that enters the public service – their record must be there. We should now forget about paper work. In future we must go online to conduct recruitment’.
He emphasized that if supervisors perform their role to ensure the appraisal form is filled accordingly to show poor performance ratings of staff scoring below 3 overall for 3 consecutive appraisals, then that is enough to dismiss public servants from the workforce. The Minister stressed that the appraisal form is enough to dismiss public servants who are under performing and whose work attendance and attitude to work is unacceptable.
Minister Sungi called for the need for efficiency to improve these HR processes. He said, there is a need to strengthen the current systems and said digitization of these processes is the way forward.
Minister Sungi also informed the staff of his vision to ensure that Public Servants receive housing as a condition of employment. He said, he is pursuing this and will ensure clear policies on this will be put in place.
