Joe Issa Supports Move To Press On With Public Sector Reform

Mere weeks after announcing that a new head office would be built to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) some 100 vacant posts at the executive agency are to be abolished.

The move, said to involve a total of 138 posts across ministries, agencies and departments is stipulated by the Civil Service Establishment (General) Order, 2016, which was approved recently by the House of Representatives to effect changes to the 2015 Order, including reclassification and new posts created, re-titling and upgrading of posts and the effective dates for these changes.

Stating in an interview, that the public sector reform programmed is the centre piece of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionality, chairman of PICA Joe Issa, said “it is important to streamline how we do business, in order to keep us relevant and make our public sector more efficient and effective.”

“The way we have been doing business in Jamaica, our processes, etc., has gone out of whack with the best practices in the international community, so we need to change or be left behind by foreign investors, as well as by our own business sector that is thwart by bureaucracy and other structural impediments,” Issa explains.

Among the major changes to be effected by the Order is the modernization of the Accountant General’s Department to strengthen public financial management, in keeping with the thrust to improve efficiency in the public sector and to meet IMF conditionality, Minister of Finance and the Public Service Auddley Shaw has said, according to the Jamaica Observer.

Other changes reported include Amendment to the Judicature Resident Magistrate’s Act, which enacts the renaming of the senior resident magistrate to senior judge of the parish court and renaming the resident magistrate to judge of the parish court.

The 2016 Order, which was presented in Parliament by Minister Shaw, also includes the revision of salaries for the 2015 to 2017 contract period, based on the Heads of Agreement which was signed between the Government and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions. It also repeals the Office of the Trustee in Bankruptcy and establishes the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency and Office of the Government Trustee, the newspaper reported.

PICA, which became an executive agency on June 1, 2007, conducts incoming and outgoing immigration examination of all persons entering or leaving Jamaica by air and sea; it administers visas, entry permits and other documents for non-Jamaican visitors and residents; handles requests for permanent residency status; manages the deportation and repatriation of those persons not qualified to remain in Jamaica; and handles matters relating to refugees to the island.

According to its website, the agency is governed by the Jamaican Constitution, The Immigration Restriction (Commonwealth Citizen) Act, The Jamaica Nationality Act, The Alien’s Act, The Passport Act and Regulations, The Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment) Act, The Caribbean Community (Free Movement) of Skilled Persons Act, The Executive Agencies Act 2002, and The Financial Administration and Audit Act.