fp Turks and Caicos

Consultative Forum Chairwoman Lillian Misick is worried that some of the 400 government employees who took voluntary severance payments will blow their money and that the public service will suffer from a loss of talent.

“It was generally agreed that right sizing our bloated civil service was a manifest necessity,” Misick said at the April 10 meeting of the forum. “From the outset however some of us expressed concern that far too much emphasis was being placed on cutting its size and not enough on getting right the service it provides.”

About 700 employees — more than one third of all 2,200 government workers — asked for quotes on how much money they would receive to leave their jobs, and about 500 of those decided to accept it. In the end, 399 took the package and left their jobs — 186 salaried staff and 213 weekly paid staff.

Severance payments averaged $19,548, with a high payment of $194,000 and a low of $975. Government originally budgeted $6.8 million for the package but ended up paying $7.8 million.

The government did not consult the forum on the severance program.

“My concern today is that so many highly skilled civil servants opted for (severance payments) that the quality of our civil service might now be irretrievably compromised,” she said. “What is more I gather that others are using their payoffs for such profligate spending sprees abroad that they will be lucky to have enough left over to pay for a business license let alone starting a new business.

“Of course, I wish all of these former civil servants success in their private endeavors. It is just that I fear at the end of the day all we will have to show for this highly touted severance scheme is unsustainable levels of unemployment and an even more dysfunctional civil service.”

Government Chief Executive Patrick Boyle thanked those who took severance for their service and wished them well.

“Over the course of the past few weeks I have spoken to many civil servants who have told me about their new exciting plans for the future and see this as a real opportunity to take a new direction in their lives, whether retraining, re-entering education, setting up in business for themselves, or using their compensation to change their pace of life,” Boyle said March 30.

Government has denied persistent rumors that hundreds more civil servants will lose their jobs, although Boyle has said that a small number might lose their jobs as the five new government ministries are reorganized in an effort to increase efficiency and decrease costs.

Public sector employment grew from fewer than 1,500 in 2002 to almost 2,800 in 2008, when it consumed 44 percent of all government revenue. Now with approximately 1,800 remaining after the severance plan, the government will have about the same number of employees it had in 2004.