| Greene urges peaceful protest of PS “firing” | | Print | |
| Written by Richard Green/richard@fptci.com | |||
| Thursday, 13 October 2011 10:37 | |||
 Progressive National Party Leader Clayton Greene is urging peaceful protests against the interim government’s intention to “fire” permanent secretaries of all 10 government ministries in a move to reduce the number of ministries. “We must make a preemptive strike with a view to letting the administration know that this will not happen in these Turks and Caicos Islands,” Greene said at a PNP press conference Oct. 12. “Organize yourselves and peacefully protest against this threatened action.” The government says it will soon announce the restructuring of the 10 government ministries, reducing that number to five or six. Each of those is expected to have more under secretaries in charge of policy and/or service delivery, while permanent secretaries will assume a more strategic role, the government says. Current permanent secretaries and under secretaries will be invited to apply for the proposed positions, but they will compete with applicants from the public service and from the private sector. The government says it prefers that candidates are Turks and Caicos Islanders or TCI British Overseas Territories passport holders, but others will also be considered. The government says new permanent secretaries are expected to be in place before Christmas, while under secretaries will be selected early next year. “There is no rhyme or reason for requiring existing office holders to reapply for the posts unless the intention is to rid the system of Turks and Caicos Islanders at permanent secretary level,” Greene said. “If we sit back and let this happen, we will live in a country where permanent secretaries’ loyalty will be to the FCO as opposed to the minister whose policy agenda the permanent secretaries are helping to implement. If we let this happen, ministerial government will be a thing of the past as ministers will have no authority. “The return of representative government will mean nothing as elected officials will be unable to represent. The plan is to render elected government impotent, and we are watching it daily being put into place.” The 10 permanent secretaries of government ministries are:
In further restructuring of the government’s public service, all members of the government’s statutory boards have been reappointed by the governor for two months pending a review of which boards will be continued, changed or eliminated. Appointments to the boards were set to expire Sept. 30, requiring reappointments, but all boards are being reviewed as part of the interim government’s civil service reform. The government says the extension of board memberships will allow more time to decide how the boards can be changed to improve efficiency. The government said there is no truth to rumors that there is a freeze on work permits or that the Immigration Board is not meeting as scheduled. The Ministry of Border Control and Labour is working on streamlining labour clearance and work permit processes. The government says the role of the Immigration Board will change, with less day to day involvement in deciding applications, to a more strategic oversight in line with the Immigration Ordinance. Click here to read Greene's prepared statement Photo: PNP Leader Clayton Greene
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