Today, the Executive Council met in an extraordinary meeting at the Lt. Governor’s residence in preparation for the transition to a public entity. It has been noted by the Executive Council that some departments were not functioning up to par. This meeting was a follow-up of previous brainstorming sessions held earlier in the year by the Council. The Executive Council’s intention is that the policies laid down by the Island Council are properly enacted. The Council realizes that many of these decisions will be unpopular, however they need to be implemented in order to ensure good governance.
Some 44 decisions have been made during this meeting. These decisions will cover a broad sector of Government and no-one should feel they are being singled-out. Strict deadlines have been placed on many of these decisions, as the Council would like to see an immediate improvement in these areas.
At times the community has been very vocal about Government’s inadequacies and the time has come to make the unpopular decisions that are necessary for this transition. The goal of Government has been to take the existing services that we have and improve them to a position equivalent to a first-world country. The Council realizes that the outcome of this meeting will not solve all problems on Saba or within Government; however, it is considered a proactive start.
Within the coming weeks, they will again hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the implementation and decisions that were made. The decisions that will be delivered to the Department heads are expected to be drafted and delivered by Friday 27th 2009 – at weekend.
The Island Government of Saba is busy restructuring its entire civil servant apparatus, salary scales, and Government services. This action of the Executive Council is considered to be a necessary step in the organizational restructuring.
Source: Saba Government Information Services – gi*@sa*****.com