Minister of Planning, Economic Affairs and Development, Dr. Kennedy Swaratsingh, has revealed that some of this country’s critical government agencies are operating at a fraction of their required staff.
From Customs to the Police Service, he said the numbers are alarming and can no longer be ignored.
“Yesterday I met with Customs. Customs have 227 officers short. BIR was staffed at 32%, they are 68% understaffed. The Director of Personnel Administration, no staff. The Police Service, 2,000 people or more short.”
Speaking at the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s Business Outlook event on Wednesday afternoon, Minister Swaratsingh noted that these shortages are not just numbers but symptoms of a system that has been neglected.
“Everywhere you look around, we are facing over and over again, are depleted. So that when people criticise, especially when you look around and you say that ‘the public service this’ and ‘the public service that.’ Let me tell you something: this is no longer a space where we have not invested in our people, we have not invested in technology, we have not invested in alternate ways of engaging with government. For far too long, we have all sat down and accepted the status quo.”
Minister Swaratsingh also expressed frustration at the lack of progress since his last tenure.
“I remember piloting a piece of legislation in 2008, 2009, data protection, electronic transactions, and I am back here 15 years, 16, 17 years later, and it is as if nothing’s changed. So tell me, tell me, and we have all sat down. I mean, so there’s nobody to blame? It is all of us to blame.”
He called on both the public and private sectors to take shared responsibility for the current state of affairs.
“I have heard so many stories about persons who felt that they couldn’t contribute, that they couldn’t speak, that somehow it was us or them. If we continue along that road, then all of us will find ourselves talking in five years’ time about what could have been, what should have been, what if.”
The Minister assured that this government will be more facilitative and urged his fellow Ministers to adopt a different approach to engaging various sectors of society going forward.