Trump wants names of climate team
WASHINGTON (December 9): The transition team
working for United States President-elected, Donald Trump has asked the Department
of Energy for the names of Federal employees who have worked on climate policy,
raising fears that they will be the first targeted for sackings by the new
Administration.
Over the past eight years, Public Servants at the
Department have been working, among other things, on a ‘social cost of carbon’ metric to justify various climate policies.
This has been opposed by various right wing groups as can be used to justify robust
climate policies.
It is these workers who the transition team
specifically want named — a move described by some observers as unprecedented
and dangerous.
Democrat Senator, Edward Markey said he had written
to the transition team warning that it would be violating the law if it used
this information to retaliate against Federal employees. "Civil Servants
should never be punished for having executed policies with which a new Administration
disagrees," Senator Markey wrote.
Nine tenths
of revenue for PS pay
HARARE (December 9):
Zimbabwe’s Public Service wage bill is expected to be $US3 billion ($A4
billion) next year, leaving just $US400 million ($A534 million) for everything
else.
Minister for Finance,
Patrick Chinamasa said falling revenues and a failure to cut the country’s
bloated bureaucracy meant that wages were now costing something close to 90 per
cent of all revenues.
Ever hopeful, the
Minister said restrictions on hiring, continuous monitoring and audits for
flushing out ghost workers, as well as the restructuring of the Public Service,
were essential measures for the coming year.
However, President
Robert Mugabe has continually overruled him, saying the Public Service, which
includes the armed forces, must be maintained at current levels.
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Government
lets scientists off leash
OTTAWA (December 11): A tentative deal has been reached which will allow
Canadian scientists who work for the Government to share their research with
the media without first being designated official spokespeople.
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) says
it has reached the agreement, which will affect more than 18,000 Public Servants.
This reverses a ruling by the previous Conservative Government which scientists
said muzzled them at the same time as they were subjected to extensive funding
cuts.
The union, which represents 55,000 scientists, IT experts, auditors and
other Public Servants, made the breakthrough during new contract agreement on
behalf of the scientists which includes a five per cent wage increase over four
years.
Negotiations are continuing for more than 32,000 other PIPSC members.
Parliaments says no to PS
reform
NICOSIA (December 9):
The Cypriot Parliament has rejected five of six Government Bills on Public
Service reform.
Under Secretary to
the President and Reform Commissioner, Constantinos Petrides said he deeply
regretted Parliament’s decision.
“Without so much as an
amendment from parties, the Civil Service reform was rejected in its entirety.
It is really saddening that the current rotten system is perpetuated,” Mr Petrides
tweeted.
MPs who supported the
Bills stressed the importance of cutting back on public expenditure, while
those against the legislation claimed it did not go far enough.
General Secretary of the FDA, Dave Penman said Ms May had joined an
unedifying list of Prime Ministers who have publicly criticised underpaid and
overworked Public Servants instead of voicing any concerns in private.
It follows a magazine interview in which the Prime Minister questioned
the way staff in Whitehall failed to speak their minds and expressed
exasperation at their fondness for acronyms.
Mr Penman said Public Servants “like politicians”, were not infallible
“but true leadership is dealing with those issues in private and not resorting
to the sort of Civil-Service bashing that certain sections of the media appear
to crave”.
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Netanyahu favours political appointments
JERUSALEM
(December 11): Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent shivers down the
backs of the country’s Public Servants when he said he would like to emulate
the United States system where thousands of appointments can be made by the
incoming Government.
“President-elect,
Donald Trump can make 4,000 appointments. We should be able to make a few
hundred appointments that don’t need a tender,” Mr Netanyahu said, according to
reports from his weekly Cabinet meeting.
Mr Netanyahu
has set up a committee that will explore ways to remove some of the checks and
balances currently in place regarding public appointments.
Most Public
Service posts in Israel are filled through a tender process that is supposed to
ensure that appointees have the professional qualifications to take on the job.
It is also meant to weed out instances of nepotism and cronyism.
Pensions ‘should be pay factor’
DUBLIN (December 8): Ireland’s Minister for Public
Expenditure, Paschal
Donohoe says the value of the country’s Public Service
pensions has increased in recent years and the fact should be taken into
account in determining future pay rates.
Mr Donohoe said the country could not afford to
return to the previous benchmarking system for determining rates or to social
partnership-style wage awards.
“What I want to ensure is that in the engagement
that we have in the future with trade unions in relation to the setting of
public pay, we take account of the value of future pensions in determining
rates of remuneration,” Mr Donohoe said.
“I want the Public Service Pay Commission to
provide an input into how we will do this. What is crucial is that all of this
work is fact based and evidence based.”
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Spike in early
retirements
KUALA
LUMPUR (December 10): A report to Malaysia’s Senate states that some 72,000 Public
Servants have opted for early retirement in the past decade.
While
the figure is not large in a Public Service numbering more than a million, it
has affected Treasury estimates of the money needed to be set aside for pension
payments.
The
report said that while many workers said their main reasons for early
retirement was the desire to do voluntary work or spend more time with family,
others were starting careers in the private sector, getting the benefit of both
the pension and another income.
It
suggests that better career paths and opportunities for promotion might tempt more
experienced personnel to continue their careers in the Public Service.
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Government quizzed on PS vacancies
GIBRALTAR
(December 12): The Opposition Gibraltar Social Democrat Party (GSD) is
continuing to question the Government on its plans to fill 177 vacancies in the
British Overseas Territory’s Public Service.
In a
statement, the GSD said the vacancies were advertised before the 2015 General
Election but have still not been filled.
“Not
filling those vacancies will be an effective cut in the Public Service complement. The
Government continues to dodge the issue and refuses to come clean on its
intentions,” the Opposition party said in a statement.
The
Opposition said the Government had failed to deal with the use of contract
workers from recruitment consultants on the minimum wage occupying Public Service
posts on a long term basis, and had also failed to justify why the Chief Secretary
and the Principal Auditor had received 28 per cent pay rises.
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Election
hopefuls must quit PS
NAIROBI
(December 10): Public Servants who want to run for Parliament in next year’s
Kenyan national elections have until February 7 to declare their intentions and
resign.
Head
of Public Service, Joseph Kinyua said this was in accordance with the country’s
Election Act 2011.
It
does not apply to Governors of Counties, their deputies or members of County
Assemblies.
Public
Servants who have declared they will seek elective posts in 2017 include the
Chief Secretary of the Department of Water, Kenya’s Ambassador to Tanzania and
the Chief Executive of the Export Promotion Council.
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End for hated quota system
LONDON
(December 9): The much-loathed ‘rank and yank’ performance management
system by which United Kingdom Public Service managers were forced to identify
the bottom 10 per cent of performers in their workforces has been junked.
The system was introduced to help target poor performance, something the
Public Service has acknowledged has been a problem, but the ranking system was criticised
for targeting the wrong people as well as being hugely expensive to run.
Public Service unions have been told that a new Cabinet Office framework
will be introduced in 2017 with new, more flexible arrangements based on some
core principles that all Departments will need to meet.
Crucially, the principles do not require Departments to operate quotas
and relative assessment, where staff are judged against the performance of
others and placed in categories, including ‘must improve’, which ultimately
puts them at risk of losing their jobs.
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PNG province restructures PS
KAVIENG
(December 11); The Papua New Guinea Province of New Ireland has launched a
restructure of its Public Service, under the leadership of its Governor and
former PNG Prime Minister, Sir Julius Chan.
Sir
Julius said high incentives and allowances over the national scale would be
offered to attract the right officials to the island. This would be followed with
the revamping of middle management positions.
He said five
new appointees for Departmental Chief Executive positions and 16 director
positions, would take up their new roles in mid-January.
“There
has been a very visible lack of discipline, initiative, ownership and
pride at all levels of the Public Service, leading to mismanagement and
corruption, misuse of power and position, and the cynical disregard for ethics
— this must stop,” Sir Julius said.
Public
Service training centre launched
BAKU (December 10): A new training centre for Azerbaijani Public
Servants has been opened in the capital, Baku.
The centre has been established under a joint project funded by the European
Union and implemented under the United Nations Development Program with local
input from the Azerbaijan Academy of Public Administration.
It is expected to set internal procedures and training modules that
abide by European standards. While the main thrust will be the improvement of
the local public sector, there will be capacity for officials in other
countries in the region to attend.
Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, Malena Mard said the centre
was part of the EU’s commitment to Public Service capacity building in the
country.
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Jobs boost
for Northern Ireland
BELFAST (December 13): The Northern Ireland Department for Communities
says that about 150 new jobs will be created to handle changes in social
security benefits across Britain.
The contract will see most of the jobs provided in Ballymena, with about
20 in Londonderry.
While a number of posts will be filled in the first instance through
internal redeployment within the Public Service, it is expected the vast
majority will be filled through external recruitment.
Posts will be in mainly administrative in nature, and will pay an average
annual salary of £19,000 ($A32.200)
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Union hits back at PS attacks
HALIFAX (December 10): A leading Public Service
union says it has been forced to take out radio advertisements defending public
sector workers from incessant attacks by the Canadian Provincial Government of Nova
Scotia.
In a statement, the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE) said Premier
Stephen McNeil was putting the interests of
corporations ahead of families and cutting and privatising the services Nova
Scotians relied on.
The advertisements will run from until December 25
on radio stations across the province.
The full Public Service News international news
service resumes in mid-January at psnews.com.au/aps/world
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