Critical gov’t staff sent on vacation together — Flax-Charles
Critical members of staff in at least one government department have reportedly been sent on vacation together in recent weeks, creating an inconvenient situation for members of the public.
This situation has prompted Junior Trade Minister Shereen Flax-Charles to call for refresher courses for the entire civil service to help improve its level of efficiency.
She argued in the House of Assembly recently that this needs to be done for public servants who are in management positions as well as those who are below management.
“We have situations where revenue collecting agencies are closed. Persons meet me on the street. ‘I cannot get into [the] Trade [Department], because there’s no cashier’. At the busiest collection time. How is this possible?” Flax-Charles asked.
The Department of Trade issued a notice over consecutive days recently indicating that it could not accept payments because of the absence of a cashier, but offered no further explanation for this.
Not throwing anyone under the bus
Meanwhile, Flax-Charles suggested that the government’s human resources system and its ‘use it or lose it’ policy may need to be examined.
The first-term legislator argued that three or four cashiers went on vacation simultaneously, leaving one cashier to service customers. But then Murphy’s Law — a condition where anything that can go wrong, will go wrong — took place and the remaining cashier got sick, meaning the Trade Department collected no revenue for days.
“What happens to that person that came from Anegada [or] Jost Van Dyke?” Flax-Charles asked. “Are they going to have to pay to come back to Tortola? Are they going to have to pay a penalty because they can’t get back within a certain time?”
Flax-Charles argued that while she was not trying to throw anyone under the proverbial bus, the government could not afford to ‘play around’ when trying to generate revenue and needs to do better, particularly since it cannot pay its bills if it is unable to generate revenue.
“If we do not generate that revenue we cannot pay our bills. We cannot help our people. Every day persons are coming needing assistance and we are unable to help them. But if we are more efficient we will be able to help more people. We will be able to prioritise,” she added.
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This woman was one the most disruptive and uncooperative workers at the BVI Tourist Board. She almost sent her own sister, the director, crazy. She had to suspend her for her horrific behaviour and attitude. Now all is a sudden with the help of head coach and his witch craft she now giving advice on Human Resources matters in the civil service. The BVI is really not a real place.
The entire civil service needs to be revamped. Highly overstaffed. Too many employees sitting around chatting or surfing the internet with nothing to do. Many calling in sick or staying home and chilling out. Many sitting around counting how many more years to go before pension kicks in.
And to top it off, they get increments for doing what? Absolutely nothing. Don’t mention the study leave, again abused, that counts toward their overall pension payout.
Talk about living in Paradise. Who wouldn’t want to be a public servant? Not me, buddy. I get bored doing nothing.
Basic common sense things like this we struggling with but yet they up and down talking about independence.
Three or four on vacation at the same time?
Who was responsible for that foolishness?
They were “sent” ..?
Unfortunately we have to throw Shereen under the bus.
Her statement about the government has to do better when you are apart of the government got me blown away.
Tell me something. Does all this lady does is criticize??? Is this what she was elected to do? Any one can criticize.
We need leaders to make proactive moves and brag on them when we see improvements. Not criticizing every aspect of a government you are apart of.
A vote of no confidence for Shereen Flax Charles. I did not vote for you to criticize the government but to make innovative change madam.
The manager that approved the vacation time here is who is responsible. Any competent manager should know how to schedule staff and approve vacation time correctly. This is simply a case of gross incompetence.
Honourable confusion at it again.
u mad bro
You trying to tell me that all Government employees goes to work every day to do nothing? No passport processing, no taxes paid, no payment for services, no water distribution, no transactions at the various registries, no court documents are files, no surveys are registered, no development plans are approved etc.? you got to be kidding me. you sound like somebody who was fired and upset about it or somebody who has been trying to get into the public service. I am sick of people be littering the public service, some of whom I think goes above and beyond the call of duty. Instead of having an audience with the HR Director on the matter, your Honourable chooses to BARK every day. I certainly would not reelect her.
This type of behaviour is nothing new – no consideration for the customer.
Go to the bank and you find only one or two tellers working while the line stretches to the outside.
I don’t think many of our people understand what customer service is all about and the socio-economic impact it has on the country as a whole.
Ain’t no supervisor can deny leave requests. If they do they will be complained to a politician and in big trouble. What does she expect?
What about planning, managing in advance, cross-training, inter-departmental support staff, etc., etc. The Civil Service is so badly run and managed, it’s a surprise that anything gets done. Much is still handled manually, which is inefficient and results in problems. We need transformative automation of processes, reduction of staff following efficiencies, a retirement age of 65, increments based upon performance, not length of service, etc. In other words, a public service that is based in the 21st century and not the dark ages.
ONEOF THE ISSUES THAT GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE FAIL TO RECKON WITH IS MOTIVATION.
Th civil servant is non motivated, down trodden and emotionally hardened.
Why? For years he and are paid sub to slave wage. For years he and she never sees a wage increase.
For years she and de is promised anicrment, but after waiting for years and years and years, she and he still never see or get an increment.
So psychologist say, when people are treated poorly, and when people are treated shitty, they lose their morale, they lose their inspiration, they they lose their motivation, they lose their mood and motivation to do good and serve well.
So yes, you get what you pay for.
Wish they would pay the retirees their increments though. They are really suffering,many of them. But why are they holding those people’s money for all those years? That is so evil!!
Shereen Flax Charles. I am so disappointed in you. Why the lies?! You trying to create a story line to benefit yourself and I’m sick to my stomach. Who knows the truth knows. You truly are an awful human being.
From my experience, yes. It’s not exactly they do nothing. But to complete a function requires 10x the effort. More often only 7x the effort is expended and and therefore the expected result is never completed.
I’ve said it before, this lady is all Hats no cattles.
Sounds bites of confusion when she does speak.
Elected to criticize everyone and everything, zero leadership pure confusion.
#voteherout
You got my vote
Call it white if it is white and blue if it’s blue
Bank managers used to be on the ground floor. All managers should be seen. Then they would see the chaos in slow motion. This applies to all, be it Government or Private.
Human Resources,and their Take it or lose it policy.The heads of these government departmentsoare who is to blame along with these PS’s,a lot of departments were basically shut down for the holidays. These heads were pitically given jobs as campaign rewards. Ask the Premier he is guilty of it.
WHY MS FLAX DONT ADDRESS THE MOLD CONCERN IN THE BUILDING
Yall keep doing that…this happened at social security…had to wait 3mths to get my money because they short staff for that reason….really, you aint even suppose to tell me that cause it’s unprofessional and unorganized
All at immigration and labour. Same thing. It’s ridiculous