THERE is the view that the Public Service Commission should publish a report annually.
It comes from President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados, Andrew Brathwaite, who was speaking during a recently held public forum.
He noted that the Commission advises on matters related to recruitment, appointment, promotion, as well as the removal from office and discipline over public officers.
“With respect to discipline of public officers, the Public Service Act sets out a Code of Ethics and discipline which goes into the types of offences public officers might commit and what the penalties are. The Public Service Commission along with the permanent secretaries and heads of the departments are ultimately responsible for enforcing that discipline.”
It is against this backdrop that the ICAB President stated: “This Commission, I’ve always felt, should publish an annual report so that there can be a bit more transparency about its operations. We are always talking about discipline of public officers, or the lack thereof, but we seldom hear that this Commission has the responsibility for that.
“So I think there needs to be a lot more transparency – even though there is no legal requirement for such – so that they can explain to us the work they have been doing and what challenges they have because you can imagine this is a very significant undertaking. It is not easy. The entire human resources function for the public service could not possibly be straightforward,” he opined.
Brathwaite, during his presentation, also made a case for the timely submission of financial statements to the auditor general.
“The auditor general does note that the submission of accounts long after the due period often leads to problems in finalising the audits and is of little help to decision makers. The late submissions are also contrary to statutory requirements and can create an environment where fraud can thrive and remain undetected.”
“That is the big concern. That if you are not preparing financial statements on a timely basis and getting them audited, that creates an environment where fraud can occur and remain undetected for long periods of time,” he said. (JH)