The Department of Public Service on Wednesday launched a website designated for the administration and monitoring of all Government and donor scholarships.
The website is being touted as a hallmark of transparency in the scholarship awarding process following accusations of corruption after it was discovered that Government awarded scholarships to Ministers and other senior functionaries.
The website is expected to be online from Friday as the Department of Public Service’s Scholarship Division seeks to make the process of acquiring Government scholarships much easier with the introduction of 21st Century
Guests at the launching of the website
technology. The launching event was held at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) Smart Classroom in Kingston, Georgetown.
Public Service Department Permanent Secretary Reginald Brotherson said that Government has awarded over 1300 scholarships in the past three years for students to study both overseas and locally. He added that the awarding of scholarships was part of Government’s commitment to bettering the lives of the Guyanese people.
“The priority areas of training are geared to match the intellectual talent of all Guyanese, firstly taking heed to what is best in national interest and, therefore, expanding the pool of resources,” Brotherson said.
“The establishment of this website will be a catalyst of transparency as it offers its users a wide range of activities associated with the economy of time. Information sharing, better utilisation of resources, connectivity of scholarship offers, online registration, coordination of travel, linkages to funds, statutory reports for submissions, managing individual scholarships, meeting deadlines and personal data, access to other online services among others. Therefore, it will be an ongoing update of the website as a work in progress,” he added.
The website was designed to make available easily accessible scholarships, training and job opportunities for prospective and current students as well as public servants. These programmes can be accessed through the website’s easily navigable interface.
Prospective students will be able to register, save and submit their applications via the website while current and past recipients can access all forms necessary for the management of their scholarship.
The website is being managed in real time and is being hosted on three different domains, thereby ensuring it never crashes. Dr Marcia Thomas, Head of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at NCERD, facilitated a demonstration of how the website works and related that an all-Guyanese team built it.
She added that it was also hosted on the Government’s e-Government network in addition to an outside host so as to ensure that it was always up and running.
Additionally, the website also provides public servants with the necessary information pertaining to professional training offered by the Department of Public Service.
Meanwhile, Ministerial Adviser Vincent Alexander, who delivered the feature address on behalf of Public Service Minister, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, said that the launching of the website was part of the Government’s mandate to provide “the good life”.
Additionally, the Department’s Planning and Analysis Manager, Kandasia Kendall, said that they have been actively engaged in making training opportunities available to all Guyanese.
“The Department of Public Service remains committed to providing training opportunities to Guyanese throughout the length and breadth. It is, therefore, through this backdrop that we need to make training opportunities available through this department accessible,” she said.
“Guyanese are studying all over the world. We want our students to be able to connect with us faster and easier. Through the website, we will be able to better monitor our international students and ensure that they are in compliance with the terms and conditions of their scholarship. It is for this reason that we have integrated the resources necessary for all students to manage their scholarships online,” Kendall added.
The website will make available scholarship opportunities rendered by the Government and donor organisations, and prospective awardees will be able to register and apply online.
Government has been secretly expending millions of dollars for several of its Ministers to benefit from full-scholarship programmes.
Education Minister Nicolette Henry and Junior Infrastructure Minister Annette Ferguson are among those who received millions of dollars to pursue their studies in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively. Henry is doing her PhD in Public Health to the tune of $3.36 million, while Ferguson benefited from a $3.38 million public policy management scholarship.
