Inadequate critical staff hampering work of Education Ministry – PS

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday heard that a shortfall in critical staffers at the Education Ministry has been hampering the operation at the Education Ministry, particularly in the area of storage management.
While scrutinising the Auditor General’s report for the years 2017 and 2018, it was revealed that in 110 instances, assets purchased by the Ministry at a value of $100.9 million were not recorded in the permanent storage ledger – a breach in the storage regulation.

While 100 per cent of it has since been recorded, Permanent Secretary Alfred King told the Ministry that due to the large volume of assets purchased and distributed by the Ministry, it requires a larger complement of staffers.
“By volume, one day alone, we can be taking in and distributing books in thousands and at the same time, issuing equipment and other things to the institutions… A check will show us that maybe if we get seven staff in critical areas – finance, procurement and storage – we would be better able to do justice to the implementation and reduce half of the queries if not 90 per cent,” he noted.
When asked if the Ministry is adequately staffed to take care of such matters, the PS noted that the storage regulation calls for a deliberate structure for its management and separation of duties.
“All Ministries, including the Ministry of Education, operated makeshift storage systems where there is no dedicated facility for proper storage, stocking, marking and distributing. Very often, the items received by the Ministry of Education is marked on the go and distributed on the go. The Auditor General observed it…There’s no real separation of storage management and if we expect the implementation of the storage regulation as is, then there must be a structure of storage management, which is not currently practiced,” the PS divulged.
According to the PS, while the Ministry is in deficit of over 100 workers, a few to fill the key positions will significantly improve their operations. He noted that procurement, storage and finance staffers are most critical.
In response, PAC Chairman Jermaine Figueria noted, “We’ll coin that into a recommendation to the FS and to all Ministries. I think that’s a good suggestion.”
PAC Member, Ganesh Mahipaul also questioned the setback behind hiring persons. However, the PS noted that the Public Service Ministry is responsible for identifying areas of weaknesses and satisfying them. He has written the Ministry on this matter in order to effectively discharge their budgetary programme.
“Public service recruitment is not done through the Ministry just like that. It is initiated by way of recommendation and the Public Service Ministry takes responsibility for authorising, advertising or filling of those vacancies…The letter that I wrote is in keeping with the process of the Ministry of Public Service to identify these areas of weaknesses and the importance to get mainly the budgetary responsibility,” King outlined. (G12)